UC-NRLF 


$B    M71    715 


NELSON  FAIRCHILD 

toxin  treatment,  and  the  do6lors  did  not  ex- 
pe6l  him  to  live ;  but  the  disease,  once  expelled' 
from  his  system,  seemed  to  carry  off  with  it 
the  seeds  of  early  weakness,  and  from  that 
time  he  grew  slowly  but  steadily  stronger  un- 
til he  reached  a  vigorous  manhood. 

Six  months  of  every  year  were  then  passed 
at  Holiday  Farm,  and  the  children  thought  it 
a  paradise.  The  farm  was  full  of  pets,  and  the 
summers  were  never  long  enough,  although 
Neil's  part  in  all  the  games  had,  at  first,  to  be 
a  very  minor  one.  His  winters  also  were  full  of 
the  most  natural  and  healthy  enjoyment,  for 
Boston  did  not  present  any  obstacle  to  nor- 
mal boy  life.  As  he  grew  older  there  were 
games  of  prisoner's  base  and  marbles  on  the 
Mall  in  front  of  his  own  door;  hare-and- 
hounds  all  through  the  safe  streets  of  the  Back 
Bay ;  and  in  their  season, "  cutting  "  behind  the 
boobies,  where  almost  every  coachman  was 
a  friend,  building  and  storming  of  snow 
forts,  and  much  skating  and  tobogganing  in 
the  empty  lots.  But  for  many  years  the  dear- 
est playground  was  a  few  square  feet  in  a 
brook  flowing  through  an  estate  near  Boston, 
easily  accessible  on  Saturdays  and  even  in  the 
short  afternoons  of  winter.  There  still  exists 
a  map  of  this  principality  of  the  imagination, 
drawn  and  colored  by  Neil  with  the  same  scru- 
pulous care  with  which  he,  like  all  the  chil- 

c:  2  3 


NELSON  FAIRCHILD 

dren  in  school,  was  obliged  to  make  a  map  of 
"Boston  in  William  Blackstone's  Time."  All 
the  materials  for  adventure  and  travel  were 
here  provided;  and  "Tortoise  Island''  was  to 
the  little  boy  with  two  crowns  already  a  con- 
firmation of  the  prophecy  that  he  should  eat 
his  bread  in  two  countries.  And  it  is  impossi- 
ble to  speak,  however  briefly,  of  Neil's  child- 
hood, without  mention  of  Tug,  beloved  com- 
rade in  all  sports.  Tug  belonged  to  their  eld- 
est sister,  and  accordingly  Neil  and  Gordon 
became  in  family  language  "  the  little  uncles," 
by  which  name  they  were  known  long  after 
they  were  grown  men. 

"  It  was  always  a  pleasure  to  meet  him  in 
the  street  when  he  was  a  very  little  fellow,"  a 
friend  of  his  mother  has  written,  "because  he 
bowed  with  such  a  cordial,  happy  smile,  as  if  it 
were  really  a  pleasure  to  see  one.  I  remem- 
ber so  well  a  talk  I  had  with  him  one  day  in  the 
Charles  Street  Garden,  when  he  was  about  ten 
years  old,  full  of  a  quaint  philosophy  of  life, 
and  showing  such  a  brave,  bright  spirit."  And 
another  calls  him  "a  dear  lad,  so  gallant,  so 
courteous  to  his  mother's  friends  always."  It 
must  have  been  about  this  time  that  he  met  a 
lady  who  stopped  him  in  mid-career.  Neil  gave 
her  message  pleasantly  when  he  came  home, 
but  added:  "It  was  most  unmannerly  of  Mrs. 

to  keep  on  talking  to  me  when  she  must 

C   3   3 


y 


ST3&^i^  J9^i^/^ 


Sef^/:^^.  '9"^} 


NELSON  FAIRCHILD 


l-'l 


»  a  »»  »       ••••• 
a  9  »»  »      ••••> 


>  •  •  • 


>  3 

a  > 


NELSON  FAIRCHILD 


WISDOM    IV.  K,  17 


1091  f^JiefaVinU  biBvisH 


Harvard  University,  1901 


NELSON  FAIRCHILD 


THIS  THE  PEOPLE  SAW,   AND  tJNDERSTOOD  IT  NOT  . 
TO  WHAT  END  THE  LORD  HATH  SET  HIM  IN  SAFETY 
WISDOM    IV.  15,  17 


PRIVATELY   PRINTED 
1907 


COPYRIGHT,    1907,   BY  L.  N.  FAIRCHILD 


OARPENTIEII 


•  €  • 


•       •     •  •  I 


THE  MERRYMOUNT  PRESS,  BOSTON 


On  the  twenty-first  of  December,  1906, 
there  were  held  five  services — at  Mukden, 
at  Paris,  at  Santa  Barbara,  California,  at  Ma- 
dison, Wisconsin,  and  at  New  York  City — 
for  Nelson  Fairchild,  Vice-Consul-General  to 
Manchuria,  cut  down  in  the  flower  of  his 
years. 

But  life  is  not  a  sum  of  months  and  days, 
and  to  him  was  given  time  to  develop  into  a 
completeness  not  often  granted  to  age,  and 
into  a  beauty  of  chara6ler  which  makes  the 
memory  of  every  one  of  his  twenty-seven 
years  a  joyous  possession  to  us  who  knew  him 
best. 

There  is  not  much  to  be  set  down  in  formal 
record,  and  his  own  letters  best  express  the 
happiness  which  came  to  him  so  unexpe6ledly, 
so  unreservedly  at  the  last ;  but  what  he  seemed 
to  others,  and  never  knew  he  seemed,  they 
themselves  may  be  allowed  to  indicate.  The 
recollection  of  a  beloved  friend  becomes  a  lens 
through  which  we  see  the  future  no  less  than 
the  past;  and  those  who  look  at  life  through 
the  memory  of  Neil  Fairchild  can  only  behold 
it  magnified  in  love  and  kindness,  in  harmless 
gayety  and  never-failing  courage. 


ivil24637 


NELSON  FAIRCHILD 

Neil  Fairchild  was  born,  September  22, 
1879,  at  Holiday  House,  Belmont,  Massachu- 
setts, the  sixth  in  a  most  happy  family  of  seven 
children.  He  was  a  delicate  baby,  and  for  a 
long  time  unable  to  take  his  place  in  the  ranks 
of  his  sturdier  brothers  and  sisters;  he  said, 
years  afterwards,  that  he  remembered  always 
feeling  tired  when  he  was  a  child.  A  great  ca- 
pacity for  sleep  was  almost  the  only  hopeful 
sign  of  those  first  years,  when  a  large  part  of 
every  day  had  to  be  spent  on  a  pillow,  and  the 
long  nights  seemed  but  just  sufficient  to  re- 
pair the  wasted  vitality  of  the  days.  One  even- 
ing, coming  a  moment  late  to  say  good-night, 
his  mother  was  greeted  by  a  whisper  from  the 
adjoining  bed :  "  Neil  was  so  tired  he  could  n't 
wait,  and  I  said  it  for  him:  *Now  he  lay  mes 
down  to  sleep,  he  prays  the  Lord  his  soul 
to  keep/"  But  in  the  fragile  body  was  even 
then  an  unflagging  spirit,  and  his  early  child- 
hood did  not  lack  gayety  or  companionship, 
for  Gordon,  next  younger,  was  a  playmate 
who  could  not  make  too  great  demands  on  his 
slender  strength,  and  Neil  showed  from  the 
first  a  delightful  readiness  to  take  and  make 
the  jokes  of  the  nursery.  When  he  was  four 
years  old  he  was  attacked  by  diphtheria  in  a 
very  severe  form.  It  was  long  before  the  anti- 

CO 


NELSON  FAIRCHILD 

toxin  treatment,  and  the  do6lors  did  not  ex- 
pe6l  him  to  live ;  but  the  disease,  once  expelled 
from  his  system,  seemed  to  carry  off  with  it 
the  seeds  of  early  weakness,  and  from  that 
time  he  grew  slowly  but  steadily  stronger  un- 
til he  reached  a  vigorous  manhood. 

Six  months  of  every  year  were  then  passed 
at  Holiday  Farm,  and  the  children  thought  it 
a  paradise.  The  farm  was  full  of  pets,  and  the 
summers  were  never  long  enough,  although 
Neil's  part  in  all  the  games  had,  at  first,  to  be 
a  very  minor  one.  His  winters  also  were  full  of 
the  most  natural  and  healthy  enjoyment,  for 
Boston  did  not  present  any  obstacle  to  nor- 
mal boy  life.  As  he  grew  older  there  were 
games  of  prisoner's  base  and  marbles  on  the 
Mall  in  front  of  his  own  door;  hare-and- 
hounds  all  through  the  safe  streets  of  the  Back 
Bay ;  and  in  their  season, "  cutting ''  behind  the 
boobies,  where  almost  every  coachman  was 
a  friend,  building  and  storming  of  snow 
forts,  and  much  skating  and  tobogganing  in 
the  empty  lots.  But  for  many  years  the  dear- 
est playground  was  a  few  square  feet  in  a 
brook  flowing  through  an  estate  near  Boston, 
easily  accessible  on  Saturdays  and  even  in  the 
short  afternoons  of  winter.  There  still  exists 
a  map  of  this  principality  of  the  imagination, 
drawn  and  colored  by  Neil  with  the  same  scru- 
pulous care  with  which  he,  like  all  the  chil- 

C    2    J 


NELSON  FAIRCHILD 

dren  in  school,  was  obliged  to  make  a  map  of 
"Boston  in  William  Blackstone's  Time/'  All 
the  materials  for  adventure  and  travel  were 
here  provided;  and  ''Tortoise  Island''  was  to 
the  little  boy  with  two  crowns  already  a  con- 
firmation of  the  prophecy  that  he  should  eat 
his  bread  in  two  countries.  And  it  is  impossi- 
ble to  speak,  however  briefly,  of  Neil's  child- 
hood, without  mention  of  Tug,  beloved  com- 
rade in  all  sports.  Tug  belonged  to  their  eld- 
est sister,  and  accordingly  Neil  and  Gordon 
became  in  family  language  "  the  little  uncles," 
by  which  name  they  were  known  long  after 
they  were  grown  men. 

"  It  was  always  a  pleasure  to  meet  him  in 
the  street  when  he  was  a  very  little  fellow,"  a 
friend  of  his  mother  has  written,  "because  he 
bowed  with  such  a  cordial,  happy  smile,  as  if  it 
were  really  a  pleasure  to  see  one.  I  remem- 
ber so  well  a  talk  I  had  with  him  one  day  in  the 
Charles  Street  Garden,  when  he  was  about  ten 
years  old,  full  of  a  quaint  philosophy  of  life, 
and  showing  such  a  brave,  bright  spirit."  And 
another  calls  him  "a  dear  lad,  so  gallant,  so 
courteous  to  his  mother's  friends  always."  It 
must  have  been  about  this  time  that  he  met  a 
lady  who  stopped  him  in  mid-career.  Neil  gave 
her  message  pleasantly  when  he  came  home, 
but  added:  "It  was  most  unmannerly  of  Mrs. 
to  keep  on  talking  to  me  when  she  must 

C3  :i 


NELSON  FAIRCHILD 

have  seen  I  was  a  hare!"  His  courtesy  was 
equally  spontaneous  at  home,  and  often  very 
amusing.  When  he  and  Gordon  were  very 
small  boys  indeed,  the  son  of  some  neighbours 
did  a  rough  and  overbearing  thing  which  caused 
great  excitement  among  the  Commonwealth 
Avenue  children.  Their  mother  heard  them 
discussing  it  one  morning  as  she  was  coming 
into  the  breakfast-room.  She  paused  a  moment 
to  consider  how  to  present  the  difference  be- 
tween the  sin  and  the  sinner,  but  Neil  caught 
sight  of  her,  got  down  from  his  chair  and  came 
toward  her,  holding  out  his  hand.  As  she  put 
her  hand  in  his  he  made  a  bow  and  said : ''  Gor- 
don and  I  want  to  thank  you  for  bringing  us 
up  so  well/' 

In  1886,  Holiday  Farm  was  sold,  and  after 
that  the  summers  were  almost  wholly  passed 
in  Newport  in  the  little  house  on  Narragan- 
sett  Bay,  which  stands,  as  a  friend  once  said, 
"  with  its  back  to  the  world  and  its  face  to  the 
Infinite/'and  to  which,  twenty  years  later,  Neil 
bade  an  affe6lionate  farewell.  The  boys  liked 
well  enough  the  vacations  spent  in  England 
or  on  the  Continent,  but  their  greatest  joys 
were  conne6led  with  the  Bay,  which  they  ex- 
plored and  knew  as  pilots  do.  By  this  time  the 
older  children  could  all  swim,  and  the  little 
boys  were  learning  from  the  *' Captain"  who 
hadafted  as  boatman  on  the  short  annual  visits 

C43 


NELSON  FAIRCHILD 

to  Newport  before,  and  who  for  many  years 
was  the  daily  guardian  of  all  the  children.  It 
was  in  his  shop  that  they  designed  and  built 
the  fleets  of  toy  boats  for  which  their  grand- 
mother hemmed  endless  racing  sails,  and  it 
was  he  who  taught  them  all  in  turn  the  man- 
agement of  their  catboatsandthe  rules  govern- 
ing the  right  of  way.  Fishing  and  family  clam- 
bakes on  Conanicut, — then,  except  for  a  few 
farmhouses,  uninhabited, —  driving  through 
the  quiet  island  roads  or  riding  their  little  West- 
ern ponies  over  the  beaches  beside  their  father, 
filled  the  long  holidays.  Of  course  there  were 
occasional  mishaps,  but  they  were  none  of  them 
serious.  Blair  wrote  the  following  account  of 
one  the  day  it  happened,  when  he  was  nearly 
nine  and  Neil  nearly  seven  years  old: 

*'A  BRAVE  BOY" 

"One  day,  on  the  i6th  of  June,  I,  and  my  bro- 
ther Neil,  were  fishing  on  the  Samson's  pear. 
After  a  while  I  pulled  in  a  fish. 
Then  my  brother  Jack  came  and  fished  for 
Neil. 

[Part  2] 
"Soon  Jack  pulled  in  a  fish. 
We  put  him  in  the  pail,  and  Jack  left  us. 
After  a  while  I  pulled  in  another  fish. 
In  a  minute  up  came  another  fish  on  my  hook. 

n  5  n 


NELSON  FAIRCHILD 

[Part  3] 
"I  could  not  get  him  off  the  hook. 
At  last  I  did ! 

I  put  him  in  the  pail,  and  then  took  him  out  with 
all  the  other  fishes  to  change  there  water. 
Neil  was  sitting  fishing  on  the  criscross  of  the 
pear. 

[Part  4] 

"I  went  down  to  fill  the  pail. 
Suddenly  I  heard  a  splash,  I  left  the  pail  half 
full  as  it  was. 

I  ran  up,  and  saw  what  it  was,  I  ran  and  called 
out  to  the  men  who  were  building  our  pear — 

[Part  Last] 
"  Quick  quick  Neil  has  fallen  in ! 
The  boat  came  so  quickly  that  the  men  could 
not  stop  it  and  it  jamed  Neil,  though  it  did  not 
hurt  him. 

I  cried  out  Brave  Boy  Neil  Brave  Boy. 
He  was  saved.'* 

As  soon  as  the  little  boys  were  old  enough 
for  a  catboat  of  their  own  the  "Banjo"  was 
given  them,  so  small  and  light  that  they  could 
handle  her  by  themselves.  At  first  they  sailed 
her  at  the  end  of  a  long  painter  held  by  their 
brother  Jack,  shouting  direftions  from  the 
pierhead;  then  a  '*law''  was  made,  establish- 
ing bounds  up  and  down  the  shore  inside  the 

CO 


NELSON  FAIRCHILD 

traffic  of  the  Bay.  These  bounds  were  stri6lly 
kept  (there  is  no  record  of  a  "law''  being 
broken,  public  opinion  had  been  too  firmly  es- 
tablished in  the  nursery  on  the  side  of  right ) 
and  they  were  gradually  enlarged  until  there 
was  no  longer  need  of  limit,  and  the  two  little 
boys  knew  every  rock  and  the  exa6l  state  of 
the  tide  at  which  it  became  dangerous,  every 
set-back  current  and  helpful  eddy,  every  head- 
land and  hidden  harbour.  They  built,  them- 
selves, after  their  own  model,  a  square,  flat- 
bottomed  tender  for  the  "Banjo,'*  inevitably 
called  the  "Banjorine,"  and  painted  her  to 
match  the  small  boats.  Rather  queer  the  older 
members  of  the  family  thought  her,  but  she 
proved  entirely  seaworthy,  and  was  always 
taken  on  cruises,  in  honourable  preference  to 
the  other  skiffs. 

The  cruises  were  the  crowning  glories  of 
the  summers.  Each  lasted  for  two  or  three 
days  and  took  place  within  the  Bay.  Foraweek 
beforehand  careful  and  exhaustive  prepara- 
tions were  made,  and  the  sky  was  anxiously 
scanned ;  not  that  the  weather  made  any  dif- 
ference— it  was  just  as  amusing  to  be  wind  or 
fog  bound  in  the  harbour  of  Prudence.  Some- 
times they  went  alone  with  the  boatman,  some- 
times with  an  older  brother;  and  once  a  year, 
if  possible,  a  cruise  was  arranged  to  include 
intimate  friends  of  their  own  ages.  So  whole 
C  7] 


NELSON  FAIRCHILD 

summers  were  passed  literally  in  and  on  the 
Bay,  and  Neil  grew  to  have  a  passionate  love 
forthe  sea. "  The  only  out  about  Mukden/'he 
said,  just  before  he  left  home,  "is  that  I  can't 
watch  the  sun  set  across  the  water/' 

When  Neil  was  thirteen  he  was  given  his 
first  gun  in  accordance  with  what  had  be- 
come the  family  custom.  He  showed  great  ap- 
titude in  its  use, and  to  the  longer  cruises  were 
now  added  shorter  expeditions  on  the  Bay, 
when  he  and  his  brother  Charley,  the  keen- 
est sportsman  among  the  boys,  went  off  to- 
gether in  search  of  wild  fowl, — the  younger 
eager  to  learn,  the  elder  to  teach,  the  notes 
and  markings  of  the  various  birds.  And  more 
adventurous  shooting-trips  took  place  during 
winter  holidays,  welcome  interludes  in  school 
life.  "I  remember  once,"  his  brother  writes, 
"  when  he  went  up  to  Marlborough  with  me 
after  foxes.  It  seemed  the  coldest  place  in  the 
world,  and  I  remember  thinking  what  a  game 
little  chap  he  was.  I  could  see  even  then  in 
him  the  traits  that  were  so  marked  afterwards ; 
he  was  always  ready  and  careful.  If  we  were 
going  fishing  or  shooting  early  in  the  morn- 
ing, he  would  begin  early  the  evening  before 
to  make  sure  everything  was  in  order,  and 
he  noticed  everything  in  stories  or  talk  with 
older  people  relating  to  fish  or  game.  When 
in  the  field,  he  would  plod  ahead,  always 


NELSON  FAIRCHILD 

using  his  brain  and  steadily  careful  that  we 
were  working  together  to  the  best  advan- 
tage/' If  the  game-bag  returned  light  from 
these  journeys,  it  yet  held  a  great  store  of 
happy  memories  and  brotherly  intimacies  to 
be  drawn  upon  in  the  future. 

All  Neil's  childhood  is  full  of  happy  memo- 
ries. His  first  school  was  Mrs.  Shaw's,  No.  6 
Marlborough  Street,  where  he  went  a  slim 
little  red-haired  lad,  and  where  his  sisters  as 
well  as  his  brothers  went  also.  It  was  while  he 
was  there  that  Neil  acquired  what  was  hence- 
forth known  as  his  motto.  One  of  the  school 
exercises  consisted  in  the  repeating  of  short 
sentences  by  the  children  in  turn,  at  the  be- 
ginning of  the  day.  These  "quotations"  were 
supposed  to  represent  the  child's  own  out-of- 
school  reading,  but  they  were  usually  pro- 
vided, at  the  latest  possible  moment,  by  some 
older  member  of  the  family.  They  must  be 
short,  as  they  had  to  be  memorized  between 
the  breakfast-table  and  the  schoolroom,  and 
they  must  pass  muster,  too,  on  the  score  of 
morals  and  fitness.  One  day  Neil  started  on  his 
rapid  way  saying  over  and  over  to  himself: 
*'  Fear  nothing ;  make  the  best  of  everything," 
which  had  seemed  to  answer  all  requirements. 
By  the  time  the  *'  quotation"  was  called  for  it 
had  become:  "Fear  nothing;  take  the  best  of 
everything."  But  the  words  are  susceptible  of 
l9  ] 


NELSON  FAIRCHILD 

more  than  one  meaning,  and  although  Neil  was 
greeted  with  shouts  of  laughter  that  morning, 
they  have  truly  exemplified  much  in  his  life. 
"Prove  all  things;  hold  fast  to  that  which  is 
good." 

From  Mrs.  Shaw's  he  went  to  Noble  and 
Greenough's  Day  School  for  Boys, after  it  was 
removed  to  Beacon  Street,  and  by  his  last  year 
there  his  strength  had  so  increased  that  he 
could  play  End  on  his  School  Eleven,  although 
his  weight  was  still  under  one  hundred  pounds. 

One  of  his  masters,  Mr.  Francis  Stewart  Ker- 
shaw,says  of  this  time : "  The  records  of  Noble 
and  Greenough's  School  show  that  Neil  Fair- 
child  entered  the  fourth  class  in  the  fall  of 
1 893, was  promoted  in  due  course  fromyearto 
year,  and  was  sent  up  to  Harvard  University  in 
1 897.  During  this  period  his  work  was  of  aver- 
age quality  and  prosecuted  with  steadiness. 

"  When  I  first  knew  him, Neil  had  arrived  at 
the  beginning  of  his  final  year.  He  was  a  slen- 
der boy,  appearing  taller  than  he  really  was, 
with  a  finish  of  manner  that  gave  an  effeft  of 
distance  and  pride.  As  I  grew  to  know  him 
better,  this  effe6t  proved  to  have  some  shy- 
ness back  of  it,  and  a  militant  sensitiveness 
unusual  in  a  boy  of  his  years.  His  training 
had  equipped  him  with  a  high-minded  appre- 
ciation in  certain  matters  of  conduct:  and  taste, 
an  appreciation  that  determined  especially  the 

C  10] 


NELSON  FAIRCHILD 

attitude  of  his  mind  toward  books.  Coupled 
with  this  was  a  frankly  outspoken  contempt 
of  'cheapness'  of  ideas.  This  feeling  was  not 
always  ingratiating  to  his  fellows,  but  it  was 
always  sturdy,  and  always  commanded  re- 
spe6l. 

"Altogether  he  was  a  lad  to  be  led,  not  driven ; 
quick  to  distrust  ideas  that  he  did  not  under- 
stand, but  possessed  of  the  saving  grace  that 
he  could  be  persuaded.  In  persuading  him, the 
difficulty  lay  in  showing  him  the  limitations 
of  his  own  experience, — an  experience  not 
so  narrow  as  is  usual  with  boys  of  seventeen, 
but  vigorously  defended  by  the  militant  force 
of  which  I  have  spoken.  Fortunately  that  force 
was  dominated  by  a  love  of  fair  play.  Whether 
the  matter  of  the  persuasion  were  a  matter  of 
fa6l,  of  opinion,  or  of  conduft,  an  appeal  to 
his  sense  of  fairness  always  won  Neil  over. 
It  was  an  engaging  charafteristic,  especially 
when  brought  into  play  in  relation  to  a  matter 
of  condu6l.  He  might,  on  occasion,  test  one's 
patience  by  persisting  in  a  bit  of  mischief,  or 
by  obeying  the  letter  rather  than  the  spirit  of 
one's  commands,  but  he  could  always  be  re- 
called to  fairness  and  he  always  *  took  his  me- 
dicine.' 

"Among  his  fellows  Neil  had  an  attitude  de- 
finitely to  be  counted  on ;  he  had  no  indecision 
and  his  opinions  were  outspoken.  Since  he  was 

c  11  u 


NELSON  FAIRCHILD 

also  alert  and  ready  in  the  matters  in  which 
schools  make  appeal  to  a  boy's  loyalty,  his 
influence  in  his  class  was  clearly  to  be  seen. 
Without  consciousness  of  the  fa6l,  he  had  the 
weight  and  the  power  that  result  from  definite- 
ness  of  chara6ler  and  from  uprightness,  clean 
tastes,  and  boyish  kindliness/' 

Neil  found  no  difficulty  in  keeping  up  with 
his  class,  but  he  never  stood  near  the  head. 
His  interest  was  not  in  languages  or  mathe- 
matics, but  in  books  as  literature ;  and  that  was 
stimulated  by  his  mother's  habit  of  reading 
aloud  at  home.  Every  day  she  read  to  the  chil- 
dren, from  the  time  when  they  sat  on  the  arms 
of  her  chair  and  listened  to  Hans  Andersen, 
through  Cooper  and  Scott,  Parkman  and  the 
"  Gerard  book,"until  they  were  grown  up,and 
the  readings,  from  force  of  circumstance,  be- 
came rarer.  Neil's  dearest  friends  among  books 
were  made  in  this  way,  and  the  children  all  be- 
came, though  quite  unconsciously,  very  skilful 
in  detefting  style.  '*  That  is  your  Hawthorne 
voice,"  they  would  say,  or  "  You  read  that  like 
Thackeray." 

After  the  family  had  scattered,  as  grown-up 
families  must,  the  habit  of  reading  aloud  still 
remained,  although  the  groups  shifted  and 
changed  like  the  patterns  of  a  kaleidoscope. 
Sometimes  it  was  a  large  group  that  gathered 
on  the  piazza  at  Newport  after  tea,  sometimes 

c  12 :] 


NELSON  FAIRCHILD 

a  very  small  one,  as  in  New  York,  when  Neil 
and  his  eldest  sister  were  the  only  children  at 
home,  and  in  the  last  half-hour  of  the  evening 
an  old  favourite  was  read  or  a  new  discovery 
shared.  Of  course  there  could  be  no  continuity 
in  such  desultory  and  scrappy  moments,  but 
one  custom  has  never  yet  been  broken,  one 
reading  has  remained  invariable,  and  on  the 
last  night  of  the  year  as  many  as  can  be  assem- 
bled have  "read  the  New  Year  in"  with  the 
famous  chapter  on  Habit  from  James's  Psy- 
chology and  Thackeray's  verses  *'The  End 
of  the  Play/' 

It  was  not  until  he  was  at  Harvard  that 
Neil's  interest  in  history  developed,  but  he  al- 
ways cared  very  much  for  folklore,  and  from 
the  early  days  of  Grimm  in  the  nursery  de- 
lighted to  follow  the  variants  of  the  tales 
through  all  the  different  countries.  He  Hked 
epic  poems  and  ballads ;  and  certain  humor- 
ous books,  "Huckleberry  Finn,"  "Happy 
Thoughts ' '  and  the  "  Bab  Ballads,' '  were  among 
his  favourites,  read  and  re-read.  His  own  "li- 
brary" was  one  of  his  great  pleasures.  "No 
gentleman's  library  can  be  less  than  five  hun- 
dred volumes,"  he  used  to  say;  and  he  counted 
his  books  anxiously  from  the  time  when  they 
were  only  a  shelf  of  fairy-tales  in  the  nursery 
bookcase. Every  addition  was  eagerly  received, 
and  he  had  a  card  catalogue  with  the  date  and 
C    13   ] 


NELSON  FAIRCHILD 

any  other  matter  connefted  with  the  book 
carefully  entered.  Bookplates  were  of  great 
importance  also,  and  at  different  times  he  had 
three,  which  mark  the  period  when  each  was 
acquired.  The  last  letters  from  Mukden  have 
a  red  stamp  on  the  paper  to  which  he  alludes 
as  his  "new  Chinese  bookplate/' 

It  is  inevitable  that  the  record  of  Neil's  life 
should  be  a  family  record.  There  are  almost 
no  letters  from  him  in  his  school  years  because 
there  were  almost  no  separations.  He  was  al- 
ways at  home;  and  it  was  much  more  than 
merely  living  at  home.  He  felt,  as  each  of  the 
children  did,  the  common  responsibility  of  the 
common  hearth.  Friends  have  always  been 
eagerly  brought  to  the  house,  and  it  has  never 
been  unusual  to  have  some  one  come  down- 
stairs unexpeftedly  to  breakfast.  Neil  was  sure 
of  welcome  for  his  friends,  as  he  was  sure  to 
welcome,  himself,  those  of  any  other  member 
of  the  family."  Never  were  there  such  delight- 
ful boys,"  a  visitor  writes,  "  and  never  have 
I  laughed  more  gayly  than  with  them  through 
those  merry  meals  when  I  was  with  you  all 
at  191.  Such  a  fund  of  humour  and  delightful 
nonsense  as  Neil  had,  and  how  courteous  a 
gentleman,  although  he  was  hardly  fifteen!" 

Yet  under  the  frank  smile  and  the  open 
manner  have  always  been  hidden  immense 
reserves,  which  few,  even  of  his  intimates, have 

i  143 


NELSON  FAIRCHILD 

suspefted ,  although  they  recognized  the  power 
of  reticence  which  made  him  everybody's 
safety-valve.  All  confidences  were  secure  with 
him,  from  the  childish  secret  to  the  troubles  and 
complications  of  grown-up  life.  A  college-club 
friend,anolderman,writes:"  Though  we  were 
of  different  ages,  his  nature  was  so  sympa- 
thetic that  it  has  often  led  me  to  confidences 
which  I  could  not  have  told  to  another."  And 
again:  *'I  think  one  of  Neil's  most  lovable 
qualities  was  his  unconsciousness  of  his  own 
good  qualities  and  his  admiration  of  those  in 
others.  He  never  spoke  ill  of  any  one,  rather 
avoided  the  subjeft  of  people  he  did  n't  like, 
and  was  enthusiastic  in  praise  of  those  he  did." 
Andhisfriendandroom-mate,J.  Grant  Forbes, 
says:  "Coming  to  Harvard  from  a  Boston 
school,  Neil  had  perhaps  more  friends  than 
many  of  his  classmates,  but  he  lost  no  chance 
to  make  still  more.  His  great  interest  from 
the  start  was  in  his  fellowmen.  While  others 
still  held  together  in  little  groups,  bound  by 
ties  of  school  or  city,  Neil  somehow  seemed 
to  meet  men  from  everywhere.  Many  of  them 
who  came,  perhaps  alone,  from  far-away  places, 
were  diffident  about  taking  the  first  step  into 
this  new  life.  These  Neil  met  with  the  same 
ease  and  simplicity  with  which  he  treated  his 
already  intimate  friends.  He  took  them  to  Bos- 
ton on  Sunday  to  lunch  with  his  family ;  he  in- 
C   15   ] 


NELSON  FAIRCHILD 

troduced  them  to  their  more  prominent  class- 
mates, and  in  every  way  did  his  hospitable 
best  to  break  down  their  shyness.  Many  a  man 
I  can  think  of  now  who  has  to  thank  Neil  for 
inspiring  him  with  confidence  to  take  his  pro- 
per place  in  the  little  undergraduate  world/' 
But  in  spite  of  the  fortunate  temperament 
and  the  reasoned  philosophy  of  life  which 
made  Neil  think  almost  everybody  "nice" 
with  whom  he  came  in  contaft,  it  would  be 
doing  him  injustice  not  to  add  that  he  was  ca- 
pable of  vehement  prejudices  toward  both  per- 
sons and  things — for  his  nature  was  very  con- 
servative— as  well  as  of  long-abiding  dislikes. 
The  prejudices  were  acknowledged  but  stoutly 
maintained;  the  dislikes — and  there  were  one 
or  two  which  must  bear  the  darker  name  of 
hatreds — were  grounded  in  what  he  felt  to 
be  some  departure  from  the  standards  of  hon- 
our. Of  these  he  spoke  very  rarely,  but  when 
he  did  speak  it  was  with  a  violence  whose  only 
excuse  was  that  it  measured  his  abhorrence 
of  failure  to  play  the  man's  part.  His  nature 
could  not  hold  rancour  or  sullenness,  but  with 
the  quick  eye,  quick  heart  and  quick  hand 
went  also  the  quick  temper  that  blazes  for  an 
instant  and  is  gone,  although  as  he  grew  older 
and  his  self-control  increased,  these  outbreaks 
were  more  and  more  infrequent.  The  same 
qualities  led  him   sometimes   into   extrava- 


NELSON  FAIRCHILD 

gances  he  could  ill  afford;  the  value  of  money 
he  never  felt  nor  understood.  Fertility  of  re- 
source was,  from  childhood,  as  charadleristic 
of  him  as  of  the  typical  Yankee.  Neil's  "gim- 
let" passed  into  a  family  proverb  so  long  ago 
that  exaftly  what  was  happening  when  it  was 
unexpeftedly  and  providentially  drawn  from 
the  first  pocket  he  ever  had,  has  been  forgot- 
ten. The  "gimlet''  took  many  shapes  after- 
ward, but  it  was  always  ready.  His  gayety 
made  him  everywhere  a  welcome  companion. 
He  was  seldom  at  loss  for  a  rejoinder,  but  his 
fun  was  never  unkind,  and  his  animal  spirits 
nevertookthe  form  of  pra6lical joking, though 
they  were  very  high,  and  laughter  seemed  to 
follow  where  he  went.  It  was  impossible  to  be 
dreary  or  dull  in  his  company;  he  had  the 
"constant  habit  of  good  heart." 

All  those  who  served  him  felt  his  thought- 
ful kindliness.  "  I  always  thank  Heaven  that 
I  work  for  our  Mr.  Neil,"  Moriye,  the  Japa- 
nese who  was  in  the  household  for  years, 
writes.  And  another:  "I  can  express  to  you 
nothing  but  a  tear.  He  had  been  my  master 
though  it  was  2  or  3  weeks,  but  the  acquaint- 
ance of  this  time  has  brought  me  a  great  im- 
pression." In  a  letter  to  his  mother  one  of 
Neil's  associates  downtown  says:  "I  have  sel- 
dom heard  such  wide-spread  expressions  of 
regret,  and  they  come,  too,  from  every  quar- 

1: 173 


NELSON  FAIRCHILD 

ter,  not  only  his  college  friends  and  the  Wall 
Street  people,  but  from  office-boys,  elevator- 
men,  all.*'  "The  nicest  gentleman,"  a  chauf- 
feur calls  him. 

It  was  not  that  he  looked  for  chances  to  be 
kind — kindness  to  every  living  thing  was  in- 
stinftive  with  him ;  and  he  was  never  so  pre- 
occupied with  his  own  swift  thoughts  and 
schemes  as  to  be  oblivious.  He  never  could 
bear  to  have  any  one  left  out ;  whoever  was 
with  him,  even  for  a  short  time,  was  made 
to  share  the  moment,  and  this  kindly  feeling, 
combined  with  his  quick  perception,  gave  him 
in  every  relation  an  unfailing  ta6t. 

It  is  an  indication  of  chara6lerthat  everyone 
called  him  "Neil/*  He  had  a  genuine  faculty 
for  making  friends,  and  no  one  could  with- 
stand the  charm  of  his  manner  when  he  set 
himself  to  welcome  a  new-comer  or  to  put  a 
shy  stranger  at  his  ease.  The  last  winter  he 
was  at  home  he  was  one  evening  at  the  Har- 
vard Club,  where  a  newly-elefted  member  sat 
for  an  hour,  quietly  listening  to  the  give-and- 
take  of  conversation  where  Neil's  name  was 
frequently  pronounced.  As  the  group  sepa- 
rated at  the  door  of  the  Club  the  stranger  said : 
"  What  is  your  first  name,  Neil  1 1  should  like 
to  call  you  by  that." 

The  household  in  Boston  was  not  broken  up 
until  the  end  of  his  first  year  at  Harvard,  and 


NELSON  FAIRCHILD 

the  college  recesses  during  the  next  two  win- 
ters were  passed  with  his  brother  Jack,  who 
was  now  married.  By  the  time  Neil  was  a  Sen- 
ior the  family  was  living  in  New  York,  and 
he  could  be  at  home  for  the  winter  as  well  as 
for  the  summer  holidays.  Harvard  appealed 
to  Neil's  deepest  loyalty  and  love.  In  his  own 
family  he  was  the  fourth  among  the  brothers 
to  receive  a  degree,  and  for  five  generations 
Harvard  had  reckoned  his  kinsmen  among  her 
sons.  The  University  was  one  of  the  great 
formative  influences  in  his  life ;  and  although 
his  academic  work  was  not  above  the  average, 
in  his  Junior  year  Neil  attended  a  course  of 
leftures  which  changed  his  attitude  toward 
study  from  theoretical  to  praftical,  and  gave 
him  what  became  his  paramount  interest.  It 
was  the  course  on  the  Eastern  Question, 
known  as  "History  19,"  given  by  Professor 
Archibald  Gary  Coolidge ;  and  Neil's  reading 
henceforth  ceased  to  be  desultory. 

Mr.  Coolidge  says:  "  In  the  autumn  of  1897 
when  I  came  to  make  out  the  list  of  students 
to  whom  I  was  to  aft  as  Freshman  adviser  I 
saw  the  name  of  Neil  Fairchild  among  those 
who  had  applied  for  me.  I  had  not  met  him 
before  that  I  remember,  but  I  was  glad  to  take 
him,  as  I  had  long  known  many  members  of 
his  family.  Besides  advising  him,  I  had  him  in 
my  course.  History  I, but  the  relations  between 

c  19:1 


NELSON  FAIRCHILD 

us  were  more  than  official  from  the  start.  Dur- 
ing his  college  career  I  saw  much  of  him  in 
one  way  or  another,  and  had  a  chance  to  watch 
him  from  several  points  of  view.  Towards  the 
end  of  his  Freshman  year  he  was  taken  into 

the Club,  of  which  I  was  a  member  and 

of  which  he  was  later  president,  an  honour  he 
well  deserved,  for  he  was  very  loyal  to  its  in- 
terests and  looked  after  them  well.  I  recolleft 
vividly  the  first  dinner  at  which  he  sat  at  the 
head  of  the  long  table.  Through  the  Club  I 
often  ran  across  him ;  he  used,  too,  to  dine  with 
me  occasionally  or  go  out  driving,  and  we  had 
many  talks  on  different  subjects.  In  his  Junior 
year  he  took  a  course  under  me  on  the  history 
of  the  Eastern  Question,  the  first  manifesta- 
tion, I  think,  of  his  interest  in  Eastern  affairs. 
From  the  very  beginning  of  our  acquaintance 
I  felt  the  strong  charm  of  his  personality.  He 
was  a  man  to  inspire  affeftion ;  one  whom  his 
friends  will  always  be  glad  to  have  known, 
and  will  not  forget.  I  had  nothing  to  do  di- 
re6lly  with  Neil's  going  to  Mukden,  and  yet 
I  feel  as  if  I  had  a  distinft  relation  of  my  own 
to  it  all.  None  approved  of  his  going  there 
more  than  I  did,  and  few,  outside  of  his  fa- 
mily, took  a  keener  interest  in  the  whole  thing 
and  hoped  more  for  his  success." 

After  he  was  graduated  in  1901,  he  went 
abroad  with  some  college  friends,  and  in  the 

C  20] 


NELSON  FAIRCHILD 

course  of  the  summer  took  a  trip  to  Greece 
and  Constantinople  with  his  brother  Blair.  It 
was  the  first  time  he  had  seen  anything  be- 
yond Western  Europe,  and  it  marked  a  se- 
cond milestone.  Of  this  trip  his  brother  has 
written:  "On  my  way  to  Persia  Neil  met  me 
in  London,  and  we  remained  there  together 
about  ten  days.  It  was  then  that  I  saw  the  Elgin 
Marbles  for  the  first  time.  Neil  knew  them 
well,  and  had  just  been  studying  about  Greek 
Sculpture  at  Harvard,  so  that  he  could  tell  me 
about  them  historically,  which  added  a  great 
deal  to  the  immense  pleasure  of  seeing  them. 
We  went  to  the  various  galleries,  and  in  fa6l 
did  a  great  deal.  I  had  n't  been  in  London  since 
we  were  there  together  six  years  before,  so 
that  Neil  afted  as  my  cicerone  and  guided 
me  about  among  the  restaurants  and  theatres 
as  well  as  the  museums.  I  remember  we  used 
often  to  lunch  at  Hatchett's,  and  Neil  used  al- 
ways to  have  roast  beef  and  potatoes,  for  he 
said  that  was  distinftly  English,  and  when  he 
was  in  a  country  he  believed  in  eating  the 
food  of  that  country,  for  it  was  probably  what 
they  made  best:  we  used  often  to  laugh  about 
that,  and  wherever  we  went  that  summer  we 
put  his  theory  into  pra6lice. 

"We  were  only  one  day  in  Paris,  and  we 
went  to  Notre  Dame  and  spent  a  long  time 
there,  Neil  talking  about  the  architefture,  for 

C  21  •] 


NELSON  FAIRCHILD 

he  cared  a  great  deal  about  Gothic,  though  I 
think  he  cared  more  for  English  Gothic  than 
any  other  kind.  That  night  we  took  train  for 
Italy  on  our  way  to  Brindisi.  Neil  had  been 
anxious  about  me,  for  I  had  been  run  down 
before  I  left  home,  and  his  tenderness  and 
solicitude  were  wonderful,  and  yet  he  was  al- 
ways so  gay  that  he  made  me  laugh.  I  had 
fainted  one  day,  and  the  first  thing  he  said  to 
me  when  I  came  to  was : '  Well,  Blair,  you  're 
a  most  convenient  person — you  just  said  "I 
think  I  am  going  to  faint''  and  gave  me  plenty 
of  time,' — and  after  that  he  was  always  con- 
sidering me. 

"At  Brindisi  we  had  a  whole  afternoon,  and 
took  a  rowboat  and  went  out  to  see  the  old 
fortress  in  the  bay,  afterwards  stripping  and 
swimmingfrom  the  boat — adip  in  the  Adriatic. 
Neil's  interest  never  flagged  for  a  moment, 
and  he  was  always  hearing  an  amusing  story 
from  some  fellow-traveller.  There  was  an 
Englishman  on  the  boat  from  Brindisi  to 
Patras  who  delighted  him  by  telling  him  how 
Lord  Elgin  'had  come  along  and  chopped 
some  statues  off  an  old  temple  in  Athens,  and 
carried  them  home  to  London.'  We  saw  him  a- 
gain  on  the  Acropolis, andhetoldNeil  the  story 
once  more,  pointing  to  the '  old  temple,'  which 
amused  Neil  more  than  ever.  From  Patras  we 
went  to  Olympia  to  see  the  Praxitiles  Hermes, 

C    22    ] 


NELSON  FAIRCHILD 

and  the  next  day  went  to  Athens,  where  we 
stayed  nearly  a  week,  spending  a  great  deal 
of  time  on  the  Acropolis,  seeing  it  by  moon- 
light and  at  sunrise,  and  visiting  the  various 
museums.  It  was  delightful  to  do  all  this  with 
him,  for  beside  having  a  keen  feeling  for 
the  beauty  of  what  we  saw  he  could  tell  me 
about  it  from  an  historical  point  of  view,  as  the 
courses  at  Harvard  dealing  with  the  Fine  Arts 
had  interested  him  more  than  any  excepting 
the  Eastern  Question. 

"We  went  to  Constantinople  by  sea,  arriv- 
ing in  the  early  morning,  and  Neil  had  been 
up  since  before  sunrise  seeing  all  there  was 
to  see.  He  often  said  afterwards  that  this  ap- 
proach was  the  most  beautiful  sight  in  his  ex- 
perience ;  and  the  effe6l  of  the  great  Eastern 
City,  mosques  and  minarets  piled  up  before  us 
in  the  radiant  haze,  was  very  wonderful.  We 
did  n't  stay  in  the  city  itself,  but  went  to  The- 
rapia,  and  used  to  come  down  the  Bosphorus 
almost  daily,  and  taking  a  guide  we  poked  a- 
bout  in  the  Bazaars,  went  into  many  mosques, 
and  tramped  all  over  Stamboul.  It  was  in  the 
Turkish  city  that  Neil  liked  best  to  be — Pera 
and  Galata  attracted  him  far  less.  We  saw 
the  Sultan's  palace  and  stables,  beside  the 
great  show  places,  and  Treasury,  and  all  the 
regular  sights.  Neil  was  so  eager  to  do  every- 
thing,— yet  he  was  always  ready  to  take  it 
[   23  ] 


NELSON  FAIRCHILD 

easy,  and  loaf  about  and  chat,  always  cheer- 
ful and  gay,  always  quick  to  laugh  and  see 
the  funny  side  of  whatever  happened,  even  if 
it  was  annoying  at  the  time.  We  rode  in  the 
country  behind  Therapia,  and  along  the  Bos- 
phorus,  went  for  long  rows  in  caiques ;  and  I  re- 
member one  night  after  dinner  we  went  over 
andlanded  on  the  Asiatic  shore, for  Neil  wished 
before  leaving  aftually  to  set  foot  in  Asia. 

"  It  was  several  weeks  before  he  left  me  and 
returned  to  England,  and  I  think  he  enjoyed 
being  in  Constantinople  almost  more  even  than 
our  trip  through  Greece ;  everything  there  ap- 
pealed to  him, — the  dirt,  the  dogs,  the  cos- 
tumes, and  above  all  the  people.  He  got  to 
know  his  way  about  in  the  most  surprising 
manner,  and  never  forgetting  a  face,  and  quick 
to  make  passing  acquaintances,  it  was  not  long 
before  wherever  we  went  he  would  find  some 
old  native  he  already  knew.  He  gleaned  in- 
formation everywhere,  and  only  a  few  days 
after  we  arrived  in  Constantinople  he  was  on 
most  friendly  terms  with  all  the  cavasses  at 
the  Legation,  knew  their  histories,  and  had 
picked  up  from  them  all  sorts  of  stray  fa6ls 
of  usefulness  or  interest.'' 

Neil  joined  his  family  in  New  York  in  the  au- 
tumn and  began  work  downtown,  but  with  a 
new  standard  of  beauty  and  an  increased  long- 
ing, which  later  grew  into  a  determination,  to 

i:  24  3 


NELSON  FAIRCHILD 

go  to  the  East  himself;  and  his  reading  became 
as  time  went  on  even  more  specialized  on  the 
history  and  problems  of  these  lands,  so  that 
when  he  was  packing  for  Mukden,  in  August, 
1906,  all  but  two  of  the  books  suggested  for 
his  reading  he  already  owned,  and  thirty-nine 
volumes  of  reference  were  ready  for  his  cases. 
The  five  years  in  New  York  made  the  dif- 
ference between  boyhood  and  manhood.  It  was 
the  beginning  of  regular  work  in  an  office, 
which  is  so  unlike  work  in  a  class-room  or  lec- 
ture-hall. Neil  was  homesick,  as  most  Bosto- 
nians  are  when  they  are  transplanted,  and  for 
the  first  time  in  his  life  he  found  himself  the 
only  son  at  home ;  the  responsibilities  which  had 
been  borne  so  lightly  together  heretofore, were 
nowto  be  his  alone.  When  he  was  a  very  small 
child  it  once  happened  that  a  family  emergency 
arose  with  only  the  '' little  uncles"  to  meet  it. 
"You  see,"  Neil  explained  anxiously  after- 
ward, "  we  had  to  do  it,  because  we  were  the 
oldest  boy  at  home."  What  could  better  show 
the  solidarity  of  those  early  years !  And  in  the 
same  spirit  he  now  tried  to  make  up  single- 
handed  to  his  mother  and  sister  for  the  old, 
unbroken  circle.  All  these  experiences,  faced 
as  he  faced  them,  brought  an  increasing  sym- 
metry of  development,  and  they  brought  their 
own  compensations  also,  according  to  the  eter- 
nal law. "I  don't  know  anybody  who  got  as 

n  25 :] 


NELSON  FAIRCHILD 

much  out  of  life  as  Neil  did,"  some  one  said. 
In  town  he  had  the  amusements  that  come  from 
people,  and  at  least  every  month  in  winter  and 
every  week  in  summer,  he  got  into  the  coun- 
try over  Sunday, and  had  the  pleasures  so  dear 
to  him,  of  space  and  fresh  air.  He  found  old 
friends  when  he  came  to  New  York,  and  he 
made  new  ones,  some  very  dear  ones;  and 
above  all  he  was  again  at  home,  and  with  his 
mother,  who  was  always  his  dearest.  ^'  I  felt, 
whenever  I  was  with  that  dear  boy,  the  times 
when  he  used  to  walk  home  with  me  after  tea 
and  tell  me  about  the  books  he  loved  when 
he  was  a  child,  how  much,  how  everything,  had 
been  his  relation  with  you,"  an  intimate  friend 
has  written.  Every  detail  of  home  life  was  of 
interest  and  importance  to  him.  It  was  he  who 
found  the  house  in  East  40th  Street,  where  the 
last  three  years  were  spent,  and  where  the 
balcony  outside  his  windows  gave  him  such 
delight  in  gardening.  His  notes  written  on 
week-days  during  the  summers  are  full  of 
anxiety  about  the  depredations  of  the  sparrows 
and  the  fate  of  the  plants  and  vines  he  watered 
with  such  care.  In  winter  his  room  was  very 
cold,  but  he  always  went  upstairs  at  six  o'clock 
to  read  until  he  dressed  for  dinner.  He  saw, 
he  said,  as  soon  as  he  came  to  New  York  that 
there  would  be  no  reading  without  a  time  re- 
gularly set  apart  for  it.  It  was  then  that  most 

I    26] 


NELSON  FAIRCHILD 

of  his  reading  on  the  Far  East  was  done,  for 
he  almost  never  took  up  a  current  novel ;  but 
this  was  also  the  hour  when  he  read  his  Bible, 
which  he  did  from  beginning  to  end,  in  every 
one  of  his  later  years.  The  same  reasoning, 
that  family  life  must  be  as  carefully  planned 
for  if  it  is  to  be  preserved,  brought  him  home 
regularly  at  five  o'clock,  where  he  was  at  once 
the  most  agreeable  of  guests  at  the  tea-table 
and  the  most  afFeftionate  of  sons  and  brothers. 
It  is  of  this  hour  that  a  visitor  writes :  "  He  will 
always  be  to  me  a  beautiful  youth,  making 
those  he  loved  happy."  If  he  were  detained 
downtown,  or  at  the  Club,  or  if  he  accepted 
suddenly  some  invitation  which  did  not  involve 
going  home  to  dress,  Neil  never  failed  to  tele- 
phone to  make  known  his  change  of  plan,  for 
he  was  as  pun6tilious  in  small  matters  as  if 
there  were  no  such  thing  as  hurry.  Good  man- 
ners often  seem  to  put  one  at  a  disadvantage 
in  modern  life,  but  they  sometimes  bring  the 
unexpefted  reward  of  amusement!  One  day 
on  a  Cross-town  car  a  middle-aged  stranger 
behind  Neil  kept  harrying  him  to  get  off  be- 
fore the  car  had  come  to  a  standstill.  Neil 
finally  squeezed  aside  and  said:  "  Perhaps  you 
would  like  to  get  off  first.?"  which  the  other 
did,  so  briskly  that  he  landed  on  his  back  in 
the  wet,  while  Neil  got  off  at  a  comparatively 
clean  crossing  when  the  car  stopped,  three  or 

c;  27  •2 


NELSON  FAIRCHILD 

four  feet  further  on.  "  The  man  did  n't  look  as 
though  he  wanted  me  to  help  him  up!''  Neil 
said,  in  telling  his  family  the  story  when  he 
reached  home.  In  his  eagerness  to  share  every- 
thing he  told  them  a  hundred  stories  and  inci- 
dents which  he  afterwards  forgot, they  seemed 
so  unimportant.  But  it  is  of  such  small  intima- 
cies that  the  daily  charm  of  family  life  is  made. 

Neil  was  at  home  in  every  nursery,  and  was 
always  particularly  glad  when  he  could  see  his 
nieces  and  nephews.  The  children  of  his  young- 
er sister  were  often  in  New  York,  and  he  saw 
his  brothers'  also  whenever  he  could.  All  chil- 
dren instinftively  loved  him  as  he  loved  them. 
It  was  a  source  of  real  happiness  to  him,  and 
one  to  which  every  day  could  bringits  contribu- 
tion, since  children  are  to  be  met  everywhere. 
He  was  walking  home  one  afternoon,  with 
a  friend,  when  he  suddenly  ran  across  the 
street  and  straightened  a  baby's  cap.  When 
they  had  come  in  to  tea  his  friend  said:  "Neil 
finished  his  sentence  as  he  stepped  on  the  side- 
walk again  just  where  he  had  left  off  to  run 
across  the  street."  But  Neil  could  not  remem- 
ber anything  at  all  about  it.  He  never  had  any 
self-consciousness,  and  the  habit  of  help  was 
really  automatic. 

No  piftures  seem  to  those  who  love  him  to 
do  Neil  justice.  There  are  the  square  shoulders 
and  the  stiff  hair  whose  thickness  prevented 
C  28  3 


NELSON  FAIRCHILD 

the  smooth  look  he  admired  and  tried  for; 
but  the  smile  cannot  be  reproduced,  nor  the 
swift,  responsive  lighting  of  the  whole  face, 
so  keenly  felt  by  all  who  spoke  with  him. 

When  he  went  out  of  an  evening  the  flower 
from  his  coat,  freshened  by  a  night  in  water, 
was  always  laid  at  his  mother's  place  at  break- 
fast the  next  morning ;  now  and  then  at  his 
sister's  there  was  some  favour  from  the  dance. 
In  the  little  language  any  gift  is  a  "  rich  gift," 
and  tradition  requires  that  it  be  presented  with 
the  formula  from  Alice  in  Wonderland :  "  We 
beg  your  acceptance  of  this  elegant  thimble." 
The  *'  thimble"  may  have  no  more  aftual  value 
than  last  night's  flower,  but  love  and  gayety 
make  it  precious. 

The  dearest  memories  cannot  be  set  down. 
If  the  household  had  gone  to  bed  when  Neil 
came  home,  it  was  but  seldom  that  he  went 
to  his  own  room,  however  late  the  hour,  with- 
out stopping  and  making,  very  softly,  a  fa- 
mily signal  outside  his  mother's  door.  When  it 
was  not  answered  the  light  foot  went  on  its 
way  upstairs;  but  the  day  was  not  often  ended 
without  a  talk  with  his  mother.  Of  those  hours, 
and  of  the  deepest  springs  of  Neil's  life,  his 
own  reserve  forbids  speaking ;  what  he  him- 
self held  most  sacred  may  not  be  laid  bare. 
But  it  is  still  the  "fruit  of  the  Spirit,"  that  is 
"love,  joy,  peace,  goodness,  gentleness,  faith." 

i:  29  ] 


NELSON  FAIRCHILD 

Last  July,  in  New  York,  he  had  his  third 
attack  of  appendicitis,  when  it  was  decided  to 
operate,  and  he  came  to  Newport  at  once  for 
the  purpose.  It  was  while  he  was  still  in  the 
hospital  there  that  his  heart's  desire  came  to 
him  in  the  opportunity  to  go  to  China,  and  the 
knowledge  of  this  chance  was  the  first  plea- 
sure of  his  convalescence  and  the  great  in- 
centive to  his  rapid  recovery.  He  was  at  home 
for  three  weeks  after  quitting  the  hospital, 
during  which  the  happy  preparations  for  his 
departure  went  busily  forward,  and  on  Aug- 
ust 26,  he  left  Newport.  It  was  a  warm  plea- 
sant evening,  without  a  moon;  the  red  and 
green  fires  burning  side  by  side  on  the  neigh- 
bouring piers  showed  clear  in  the  darkness. 
The  steamerwhistled  her  response  to  the  part- 
ing greetings,  rounded  the  breakwater, and  the 
boy  of  many  hopes  was  gone. 

But  few  months  remain.  On  the  16th  of  De- 
cember he  died  in  Mukden,  by  the  accidental 
discharge  of  a  pistol  in  his  own  hand.  When 
the  news  reached  America  letters  of  help  and 
comfort  poured  in  from  all  sides.  The  follow- 
ing, although  written  in  November  by  his 
Chief,  since  it  only  arrived  after  his  death  finds 
its  place  here: 

**  You  are  doubtless  well  acquainted,*'  Mr. 
Straight  writes  from  Mukden,  November  28, 

C  30  J 


NELSON  FAIRCHILD 

"with  our  trials  and  tribulations  as  well  as 
our  simple  pleasures,  for  I  have  frequently  ad- 
mired the  regularity  with  which  letters  are 
despatched;  but  perhaps  you  will  permit  me 
to  add  a  personal  word  from  the  other  side 
of  the  family. 

* '  The  Vice  -  and  -  Deputy  -  Consul  -  General 
has  been  the  greatest  help  in  the  world,  and 
in  my  realization  of  the  blessing  of  his  com- 
panionship I  am  able  to  appreciate  what  a  dif- 
ference it  must  make  to  you  to  have  him  so 
far  away.  His  cheerfulness  never  falters  and 
he  has  the  temperament  which  alone  can  qual- 
ify a  person  for  residence  in  strange  places  and 
a  life  that  is  not  altogether  an  unbroken  calm. 

"He  has  turned  to  splendidly  in  starting 
things  off,  and  does  not  objeft,  as  many  an- 
other would,  to  the  drudgery  of  press  copy- 
ing and  recording  and  cataloguing,  and  all 
the  little  odd  bits  that  have  to  be  attended  to 
in  starting  a  new  office  in  an  old  Chinese  city. 

"  He  has  been  very  well  and  seems  to  thrive 
in  this  wonderful  Manchurian  climate,  and 
once  we  are  running  along  a  little  more  easily 
I  hope  that  there  may  be  more  time  for  him 
to  go  shooting  and  tripping  through  the  coun- 
try. There  should  certainly  be  a  future  in  this 
work,  and  he  should  do  well  in  case  he  con- 
tinues to  like  the  service  and  China,  both  of 
which  seem  to  please  him  at  present.  But  best 

c  31  n 


NELSON  FAIRCHILD 

of  all  his  true  kindliness  will  win  many  friends 
everywhere  and  always,  so  that,  which  is  after 
all  the  greatest  thing,  should  make  the  world 
as  pleasant  a  place  for  him  as  he  wishes  to 
make  it  for  others." 

One  after  another  the  precious  words  ar- 
rived. "I  don't  think  there  is  much  consola- 
tion to  be  given  or  received, except  the  know- 
ledge that  he  has  led  a  clean,  straight  life,  has 
done  evil  to  no  man,  and  has,  in  his  way 
through  this  world  of  ours,  given  pleasure  to 
hundreds  of  his  friends.''  "Neil  was  to  me 
what  one  man's  friend  can  sometimes  be,  but 
he  had  also  the  intimate  afFeftion  which  one 
usually  keeps  for  a  woman ;  a  manly  man,  and 
yet  with  a  girl's  sweetness.  One  thing  per- 
haps you  can  hardly  realize  as  I,  and  that  was 
his  goodness.  Neil  had  a  record  any  man 
might  be  proud  of."  Many  and  many  a  letter 
from  the  men  who  knew  him  has  sentences 
like  these:  "Every  one  who  knew  Neil  loved 
him."  "I  loved  Neil — it  is  dreadful  to  think  he 
is  gone."  "I  had  so  little  share  in  his  life,  and 
yet  I  loved  him."  "I  never  cared  for  anyone 
in  just  the  same  way  as  I  did  for  him."  "  You 
know  how  much  I  loved  your  son  Neil."  "I 
had  seen  but  little  of  him,  and  that  not  for 
some  time,  but  one  of  the  warmest  places  in 
my  heart  was  for  him,  and  he  was  far  more  to 
me  than  many  I  knew  much  more  intimately." 
C  32  3 


NELSON  FAIRCHILD 

Nothing  was  wanting.  "It  was  always  so 
cheerful  to  see  Neil  at  the  office,  always  bright 
and  cheery,  and  with  a  kind  word  for  every- 
body. I  can  truly  say  that  his  influence  was  a 
great  help  to  us."  ''I  saw  him  every  day,  and 
every  day  I  grew  more  to  know  and  appre- 
ciate and  admire  him.  When  he  went  away 
I  understood  what  he  had  meant  to  me,  but  I 
was  glad,  because  I  knew  it  was  best  for  him.'' 
"Every  member  of  the  small  American  com- 
munity in  Peking,  particularly  the  Legation 
people,  was  gratified  that  our  Government 
should  have  sent  to  China  a  young  man  of 
such  exceptional  personality  and  charafter.'' 
"  Our  country  needs  so  much  men  of  his  kind, 
and  his  death  is  a  distin6l  loss  to  Her  as  well 
as  to  those  who  knew  and  loved  him." 

"  He  has  won  the  racebefore  the  burden  and 
heat  of  the  day,"  one  letter  says ;  and  another: 
"  Neil  has  always  been  the  sweetest  and  most 
sympathetic  of  boys,  from  his  earliest  child- 
hood, of  whom  I  have  never  heard  but  one  ac- 
count from  anyone  who  knew  him.  With  him, 
indeed,  an  unspotted  life  was  old  age."  And 
one  who  knew  him  from  his  birth  writes : "  One 
of  the  presences  that  leave  an  unchanging 
memory,  so  that  one  always  sees  them  at  their 
best.  No  gentler  spirit  than  his  ever  looked 
from  a  young  face." 

February^  igoj 

C   S3   ^ 


LETTERS  FROM  MUKDEN 


But  the  fair  guerdon  when  we  hope  to  find. 
And  think  to  burst  out  into  sudden  blaze. 

Comes  the  blind  Fury  with  the  abhorred  shears 
And  slits  the  thin-spun  life, — '•But  not  the  praise' 


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LETTERS  FROM  MUKDEN 

Except  for  excisions  made  by  the  Department 
of  State,  such  omissions  as  seemed  necessary 
to  avoid  repetitions,  and  the  substitution  of 
initials  for  names,  the  letters  stand  as  they  were 
written. 


[  TO  HIS  MOTHER  ] 

Dampfer  "Bremen" 

August  28,  1906 

Dearest  M — : 

We  are  still  at  the  pier  but  start  in  a  minute  or 
two  and  J.  C.  F.,  Mori,  C—  and  the  R.  H.  D/s 
are  gone  away,  so  all  the  partings  are  over. 
Little  M —  sent  a  long  letter  and  six  pi6lures, 
and  outside  of  all  the  family  I  had  letters  from 
N—  and  G— . 

It  does  n't  seem  yet  as  though  I  were  really 
off — and  oddly  enough  I  don't  know  where 
to,  as  at  the  last  minute  we  booked  through  to 
Bremen,  but  I  may  drop  off  at  England  for  a 
day  or  two  and  join  Straight  in  Petersburg. 
J — will  send  you  the  sailing  list — rather  funny 
to  look  at. 

Of  course  I  took  a  farewell  look  at  the  house 
and  almost  shed  a  tear,  but  after  all  it  is  n't 
for  very  long. 

c  37  n 


LETTERS 

Thank  all  the  family  for  their  letters,  and 
good-bye,  with  heaps  and  heaps  of  love. 

(There  are  some  Germans  talking  like  mad 
outside  our  window. ) 

Best  love, 

Neil 


[TO  HIS  MOTHER] 

Dampfer  "Bremen" 

Dearest  M-~: 

We  are  almost  in,  which  means  that  if  this  old 
slowpoke  keeps  up  her  normal  pace  we  may 
be  in  London  to-morrow,  for  London  is  de- 
cided on  now.  The  trip  has  been  of  the  usual 
sort,  one  day  running  into  another  with  little 
change,  so  now  I  have  no  idea  what  the 
day  or  date  is.  Once  we  met  whales,  as  usual, 
but  we  hit  one  in  a  most  unusual  manner.  I 
was  below,  of  course,  but  a  small  boy  told  me 
the  water  was  "  all  red  with  blood."  The  peo- 
ple are  Jews,  but  nice;  very  German,  except 
for  an  English  professor,  a  man  named  B — , 
and  two  females.  We  sit  with  B —  at  a  small 
table,  his  mother  and  sister  do  not  come  to 
meals,  and  at  the  next  table  are  the  two  Ama- 
zons, who  glare  at  us.  The  food  and  every- 
thing is  right.  B —  is  an  architect  ( friend  of 
A — 's)  and  very  nice.  The  Englishman,  C — ,is 
also  nice,  awfully  learned  and  rather  serious. 


LETTERS 

After  him  comes  a  German,  Professor  A., 
who  is  very  nice  indeed.  These  three  we  play 
with  most;  only  for  exercise  we  have  a  sort  of 
hockey,  played  with  the  shuffle-board  things, 
when  we  take  in  a  young  German-American 
(his  father  is  consul  at  Hannover)  and  two 
Jews.  The  Jews,  that  is,  played  once,  after 
which  they  stopped,  thinking  it  was  too  rough 
a  game.  I  am  so  prudent  that  I  only  keep  goal 
which  is  very  good  for  my  appendix,  but  my 
shins  are  one  mass  of  bruises. 

Sunday  night  we  had  a  Kneipe,  or  rather  the 
Germans  had,  in  honour  of  the  Unification. 
Professor  A.  was  President,  and  Straight  and 
I  sat  at  either  hand.  It  was  rather  nice,  but 
disappointing  because  the  singing  was  bad,  so 
they  devoted  most  of  their  time  to  speeches  in 
German.  At  twelve  we  broke  up  and  solemnly 
said  good-night.  Professor  A.  is  apparently  the 
greatest  authority  on  the  heart,  and  has  been 
over  here  le6luring.  The  Englishman  is  a  bi- 
ologist, and  the  coming  man  on  cancer ;  works 
at  Buffalo. T — ,theconsul,  is  a  very  decent  man 
from  Chicago,  but  rather  put  out  at  Straight's 
youth.  There  was  some  question  of  prece- 
dence, they  wanted  Straight  at  the  Captain's 
table  above  T — ,  but  Straight  cut  that  knot  by 
sitting  with  us.  All  of  them  talk  of  his  youth, 
and  roll  round  their  eyes  in  astonishment  while 
he  studies  Chinese,  and  walks  round  the  deck 


LETTERS 

at  an  enormous  rate  of  speed.  I  lie  and  bask 
with  either  B — ,  C — ,  or  Professor  A.  The  li- 
brary is  ridiculous ;  thirty  or  forty  Tauchnitz 
in  German  and  English,  so  that  we  just  talk, 
doze,  yawn  and  talk  again. 

We  have  a  wireless  telegraph  here  which 
never  works,  so  that  we  have  had  no  news. 
It  is  different  from  most  and  we  cannot  talk 
to  the  other  liners,  nor  the  stations.  The  op- 
erator sits  up  there  all  day  hoping  some  other 
boat  of  this  line  may  get  in  touch,  but  the 
passengers  have  long  ago  lost  interest,  and  as 
the  trip  has  been  smooth,  they  all  lie  in  rows 
on  the  deck,  looking  bored  to  death. 

Love  to  all:  I  shall  write  you  from  London. 

Neil 


[TO  HIS  MOTHER] 

Morley's  Hotel,  Trafalgar  Square 

London,  W.  C,  Thursday^  Sept.  6 

Dearest  M--: 

At  last  I  havegotten  this  far,  where  we  breathe 
for  a  day  or  two  while  Straight  hobnobs  with 
his  Mr.  M.  We  got  into  Plymouth  latish  last 
night,  that  is,  about  7,  so  we  dined  (there 
were  only  six  from  the  steamer  going  to  Lon- 
don, so  there  was  no  special  train )  and  went 
to  the  theatre,  where  we  saw  the  Little  Mi- 
chau  that  B —  likes  so  much,  and  came  up  by 
[  40  ] 


LETTERS 

the  midnight.  Mr.  C,  the  Englishman,  was 
with  us.  Never  was  there  anything  so  casual 
as  our  arrival;  we  walked  up  the  Hoe  to  an 
hotel,  and  just  dined  as  if  we  belonged  there, 
the  other  three  passengers  going  somewhere 
else.  The  dinner  was  typical — it's  the  first 
time  Straight  has  been  in  England — and  the 
play  excellent.Thanks  to  Mr.  C.  we  had  very 
little  trouble  about  tips,  so  everything  was 
splendid.  Now  we  are  spread  out.  Straight  in 
Cheyne  Walk  with  an  old  war  correspondent 
and  Mr.  C.  at  home,  and  I  here  at  8.30  writ- 
ing and  waiting  for  Straight  who  is  going  to 
the  Embassy  with  me  first  and  then  to  the 
Russian  Embassy.  We  dine  with  Mr.  M.,  and 
I  suppose  that  until  then  we  run  like  mad,  see- 
ing things  and  doing  odds  and  ends. 

There  was  a  letter  from  V —  waiting  for  me, 
with  two  pi6lures  of  Reine.  She  is  getting  on 
— it  won't  be  such  a  long  wait  after  all — and 
perhaps,  with  her  father's  love  of  out-of-the- 
way  places,  she  won't  mind  China!  G —  I 
have  n't  heard  from  at  all,  but  may,  I  suppose, 
so  perhaps  next  time  I  write,  you  can  tell  S — 
that  he  is  balder  and  stouter  than  ever! 

This  is  a  bully  place,  my  room  is  below  the 
street,  so  that  as  I  dress  the  populace  watch 
and  admire.  So  far,  no  one  has  even  thought 
of  getting  up,  so  that  it  is  more  like  a  private 
house  than  anything.  It's  awfully  hard  to  find 
C41   3 


LETTERS 

out  anything  about  the  Trans-Siberian  Ex- 
presses, but  there  is  a  daily  Express  to  Mos- 
cow from  here,  so  we  shall  leave  here  at  9 
on  Sunday  morning,  and  trust  to  luck.  That 
just  gives  us  time  to  see  the  race — in  fa6l, 
nothing  could  be  better.  I  forgot  to  say  that 
V —  wrote  that  J.  M.  left  last  week,  to  go  to 
Harvard.  Poor  chap,  I  fancy  he  will  be  pretty 
blue  at  first,  so  G —  must  look  him  up.  Do  tell 
J —  sometime,  that  though  I  met  Miss  K.  V.  V. 
di  W.  B.,  I  never  learned  any  more  than  that 
her  first  name  was  Katherine. 

When  we  left  the  steamer  all  the  Germans 
waved  and  cheered;  they  seemed  to  agree 

with about  our  courage.  Of  course  they  all 

exchanged  cards  with  us,  so  that  I  almost  have 
a  full  deck  of  long  German  names.  All  of  them 
wanted  stamps,  but  I  fancy  only  a  few  will 
get  them.  Miss  Aus  Der  Ohe  was  on  board, 
as  you  saw,  but  owing  to  her  sister's  death  I 
only  had  a  few  minutes'  talk  with  her.  She 
looks  awfully. 

Now  good-bye,  and  lots  of  love.  I  must  try 
to  get  around  to  writing  the  "other  things" 
soon,  but  at  present  give  them  my  love. 

Great  love, 

Neil 


C  42  ] 


LETTERS 


[  TO  HIS  MOTHER  ] 


Grand  Hotel  d'Europe,  St.  Petersbourg 

Sept.  II 

Dearest  M--: 

At  last  I  am  here  after  a  trip  which  nearly 
wore  us  out.  Since  the  first  day  in  London,  I 
haven't  had  one  minute  to  write  in,  so  here 
begins  the  history.  Thursday  we  spent  at  the 
Embassy,  that  is,  the  morning,  and  later  went 
to  a  scratch  polo  game  in  which  Gaspar  B. 
played,  and  where  I  missed  Miss  P.  by  leav- 
ing early  for  a  dinner  with  Mr.  M.  ( Straight's 
old  chief) .  He  did  n't  dine  with  us,  but  Straight 
and  I  dined  at  the  same  place,  Mr.  M.  having 
a  dinner  with  Mr.  8.,  and  joined  us  later  at  the 
Empire,  whence  to  bed.  Next  day  we  again 
went  to  the  Embassy,  where  we  got  passports, 
and  afterwards  to  the  Russian  Embassy.  There 
we  met  an  old  friend  of  Straight's,  who  much 
to  my  surprise  talked  about  the  revolution 
quite  freely.  That  we  were  glad  to  hear,  but 
when  he  asked  our  opinion  of  the  war,  we  were 
rather  embarrassed.  Then  to  lunch  with  our 
third  Secretary,  and  afterwards  to  the  pra6lice 
of  the  crew.  Here  we  saw  everyone  I  have  ever 
known  in  Cambridge,  and  still  more.  From 
that  we  dined  with  an  Associated  Press  man 
who  knew  Straight  in  Japan .  It  was  very  amus- 
ing, for  they  had  quite  a  number  of  Irish  au- 
C43  -} 


LETTERS 

thors,  of  more  or  less  repute  ( chiefly  the  lat- 
ter ) ,  who  kept  things  going.  I  left  early,  being 
very  tired,  and  Straight  was  staying  there ;  and 
went  home.  The  E — s  ( that  was  their  name ) 
live  in  Whistler's  old  house  in  Cheyne  Walk, 
and  a  very  pleasant  house  it  is.  When  I  got 
home  I  found  a  wire  from  G —  saying  he  would 
call  next  morning,  and  asking  me  to  lunch, 
which  cheered  me  very  much.  As  I  had  to  meet 
Straight  and  get  tickets,  etc.,  next  morning,  I 
missed  Geoffrey  H.  when  he  first  came, but  we 
met  later, and  all  lunched. Then  came  the  race, 
of  which  I  can  say  very  little  except  that  the 
English  papers  were  rotten,  and  that  we  rowed 
a  very  good  race,  but  were  beaten  by  a  better 
crew ;  at  the  time  everyone  said  it  was  an  ex- 
cellent race — however — .  Then  back  to  town, 
where  I  dined  at  Prince's,  where  the  Cam- 
bridge-Harvard Rowing  dinner  was,  of  about 
200  people.  There  I  sat  between  Geoffiey  H. 
andMattB. ! !  The  dinner  was  long  and  tedious, 
with  the  ordinary  mutual  admiration  speeches. 
Nevertheless,  owing  to  my  companions,  I  had 
a  very  nice  time.  After  dinner  we  went  to  the 
Alhambra  for  about  ten  minutes,  and  then  on 
to  supper  at  the  Savoy,  where  G —  and  a  fellow 
named  W —  gave  a  supper  of  about  20  to  me 
and  whomever  of  the  Americans  I  asked.  I  was 
circumspe6l,and  had  chiefly  crew  men:  Bob  B., 
F — ,  N — ,  Peter  H.  and  Ned  K.  Supper  made 
C  44  ] 


LETTERS 

up  for  everything  else,  and  when  I  left,  at 
about  two,  it  was  still  going.  I  left  because  our 
train  left  at  9  next  morning  and  I  had  to  pack. 
As  you  may  imagine  there  was  little  sleep,  but 
finally  I  finished  and  made  my  train.  From 
London  to  Berlin  all  went  well,  but  once  in  the 
Fatherland  our  troubles  began,  and  if  we  had 
not  met  with  a  very  friendly  French-speaking 
Russian  we  might  have  been  there  still. 

(At  this  spot  I  fell  asleep  till  next  day,  it 
being  Petersburg  at  1.30  a.m.) 

Sept.  12 

Our  Russian  friend  translated  our  woes  to  the 
German  guard, and  we  came  safely  through  to 
Wirballen,  reading  and  sleeping.  In  Berlin  we 
missed  our  train  by  a  fruitless  visit  to  Cook's 
to  find  times  of  arriving,  but  the  delay  gave 
us  time  to  wire  Bob  B.  when  we  should  arrive. 
At  Wirballen  we  had  absolutely  no  trouble 
with  customs  on  account  of  passports  marked 
Consul,  etc.,  and  at  the  restaurant  from  which 
I  sent  off  the  post-cards,  we  picked  up  another 
man  ( whom  we  took  to  be  a  Swede,  but  who 
spoke  English )  while  ourfirst  friend  was  look- 
ing after  his  luggage.  Russian  No.  1  left  us  at 
Wilna,  so  we  said  good-bye  as  soon  as  we  got 
on  the  train  and  got  some  very  much  needed 
sleep.  We  did  n't  get  up  till  about  9  next  day, 
and  then  breakfasted  —  a  mixture  of  Eng- 

C  45 ;] 


LETTERS 

lish,  German  and  French  got  it  for  us — when 
whom  should  we  meet  but  our  Swede.  Both 
these  men  talked  quite  freely  about  Russian 
affairs.  The  Swede  turned  out  to  be  Von  E — , 
who  commanded  the  Sewastopol  in  the  war 
( she  was  apparently  the  only  ship  that  fought 
decently ),  a  very  nice  man  and  awfully  kind, 
doing  everything  for  us.  Russia  at  once  shows 
a  change,  being  much  wilder  and  poorer.  The 
peasants  are  all  barelegged,  genial,  vain  but 
stupid-looking  people,  all  trying  to  get  in  the 
piftures  we  took  (I  bought  Jimmy  H.'s  cam- 
era in  London ) .  As  for  the  landscape,  it  is  just 
like  New  England,  except  that  the  houses 
are  rather  foreign-looking,  unpainted  wooden 
things,  with  thatched  roofs.  The  engines  burn 
wood,  so  that  everywhere  great  piles  of  fuel 
line  the  track.  Birch  and  fir  trees  come  right 
up  to  the  track  almost  the  entire  way,  only 
occasionally  there  were  long  flat  stretches, 
where  one  could  see  for  miles  of  rocky  pas- 
tures, hay  and  cultivated  land.  Everything 
shows  great  poverty,  nowhere  was  an  estate 
in  sight.  At  every  station  crowds  of  loafers 
stared  at  us  in  a  bovine  manner,  while  a  few 
children  tried  to  sell  us  apples.  These  were 
full  of  fun,  but  so  scared  of  the  police  that  they 
used  to  run  under  the  train  to  escape  him  every 
time  he  appeared.  The  towns  are  off  back  of 
the  stations, so  that  until  we  reached  Gatschina 

1:46  J 


LETTERS 

we  had  no  idea  what  they  looked  like;  great 
rowsofbrick  houses  painted  yellow. Thestreets 
are  awful,  either  mud  or  cobble,  and  put  even 
New  York  to  shame  for  condition.  We  arrived 
at  Petersburg  at  7  p.m.,  when  a  guide  sent  by 
Bob  B.  met  us  and  took  us  here.  At  once  I  tele- 
phoned B —  and  we  dined  with  him  at  the  ho- 
tel and  then  went  to  his  room,  where  we  sat 
up  till  1  p.m.,  after  which  I  tried  to  write,  but 
as  my  note  shows,  fell  asleep.  This  morning 
we  had  just  had  breakfast  when  in  walked 
Kirk  B.  anda  man  named  McC — , whohavejust 
been  to  and  through  Central  Asia.  They  are 
leaving  to-night,  and  as  it  was  a  holiday  here 
with  no  chance  for  sight-seeing  ( outside  of  a 
very  shabby  procession  of  some  religious  sort) 
we  sat  and  talked  over  their  trip  till  about 
1 .30,  when  we  drove  to  Spencer  E.'s  house  and 
made  a  call.  Just  back  to  finish  this,  and  dress 
for  dinner  with  B — ,  then  to  the  first  night  of 
the  Russian  Opera,  where  they  give  a  very  fa- 
mous Russian  play, named  the  "Tsar,'T  think. 
St.  Petersburg  is  a  fine-looking  town,  and 
nowhere  is  there  a  sign  of  the  terrible  revo- 
lution which  our  papers  talk  so  much  about — 
nor  did  B —  and  McC —  see  any  anywhere, 
except  in  the  Caucasus,  where  there  were  some 
little  local  riots.  The  streets  are  enormous,  but 
illy  paved,  and  the  houses  imposing  for  the 
most  part  but  a  monotonous  yellow  colour, 
C47] 


LETTERS 

and  a  trifle  ornate.  The  "  droschky  "  is  every- 
where, and  perfe6lly  ridiculous-looking  with 
its  little  drivers  padded  so  that  they  look  like 
Mr.  .  .  .  ,  and  wearing  little  hats  like  the  ones 
in  the  old  Harrison  cartoons,  only  black.  They 
drive  well,  and  are  very  cheap,  so  that  looks 
don't  count.  E —  lives  way  out  on  the  islands, 
a  very  nice  drive  overwhatare  thebest  streets, 
but  which  look  like  the  outskirts  of  some  of 
our  parks.  Everything  is  wild-looking,  I  mean 
the  trees,  etc.,  but  oh,  so  nice  and  familiar. 
Whether  or  not  I  shall  be  able  to  see  more 
than  St.  Isaacs,  Kazan  and  the  Hermitage  I 
don't  know;  but  as  we  have  to  spend  most  of 
to-morrow  at  the  various  Embassies  and  of- 
fices, I  rather  doubt  it.  Our  trip  to  E — 's  was 
not  a  waste  of  time,  as  we  all  had  to  leave 
cards,  B —  and  McC —  for  what  the  Embassy 
had  done  for  them,  and  we  because  they  have 
been  getting  letters,  etc.,  and  while  Mr.  Meyer 
is  away,  E — is  Charge. 

It  is  awful,  going  so  fast,  because  our  im- 
pressions are  so  slight,  and  there  is  so  much 
to  say,  that  one  becomes  a  sort  of  time-table 
trying  to  cover  it.  However,  when  I  next  write 
it  will  be  more  detailed  description,  and  I  hope, 
better  reading.  However,  you  know  what  it 
is,  so  do  forgive  this,  and  Til  try  not  only 
to  do  better,  but  write  plainer  next  time.  It's 
great,  travelling,  but  you  cannot  guess  how 
I  48   ] 


LETTERS 

homesick  I  am  already !  Best  of  love  to  every- 
one. I  can't  write  to  them  now^,  but  will  try 
to  get  to  it  soon. 

Greatest  love, 

Neil 


[  TO  HIS  MOTHER  ] 

Grand  Hotel  d'Europe,  St.  Petersbourg 

Sept,  13 

Dearest  M--: 

When  I  left  off  yesterday  I  was  off  to  the 
Opera,  which  was  one  of  the  finest  things  I 
have  ever  seen.  The  name  was  *'  A  Life  for  the 
Tsar,"  but  the  plot  is  still  unknown,  for  there 
were  peasant  scenes,  court  scenes,  jousts  and 
finally  a  very  detached  city  scene.  The  time 
was  last  century,  and  the  costumes  simply 
magnificent — even  more  so  than  our  old  friend 
Orleneff's.  In  the  court  scene  a  troupe  of  about 
20  of  the  regular  corps  de  ballet  did  some  of 
their  national  dances  which  it  is  impossible  to 
describe;  I  never  saw  such  perfe6lly  trained 
people  in  my  life — and  such  rhythm,  they 
moved  like  one  person, all  graceful  as  some  of 
the  famous  dancers  we  have  seen  at  home.  The 
music  was  very  nice, and  the  voices, especially 
the  tenor,  were  very  good.  On  the  whole  it 
was  the  most  brilliant  as  well  as  interesting 
thing  I  have  ever  seen ;  but  things  come  so  fast 
C  49  3 


LETTERS 

that  I  am  in  a  sort  of  daze  all  the  time.  Between 
the  a6ls  everyone  goes  to  a  room  about  as 
large  as  Sherry's  ball-room  and  walks  round 
in  a  circle,  just  like  a  Grand  March.  The  en- 
trance to  the  Royal  Box  is  through  this  room, 
and  two  soldiers  with  drawn  swords  guard  it 
all  the  time.  There  were  more  uniforms  than 
anything  else,  though  no  important  people 
were  there.  After  the  curtain  went  down  on  the 
last  aft  they  played  the  National  Air,  and  all 
the  company  came  to  the  foot-lights  and  sang 
it  in  unison  (the  curtain  was  up).  This  hap- 
pened three  times,  the  house  as  wild  as  the 
old  Music  Hall  in  Boston  used  to  be  during 
the  Spanish  War.  B —  said  he  had  never  seen 
it  done  before,  and  I  may  add  it  was  the  great- 
est thing  you  can  think  of.  Imagine  over  1 50 
voices  with  a  full  orchestra !  Then  we  went  to 
supper,  where  we  were  to  meet  some  one  whose 
name  Bob  forgot.  It  turned  out  to  be  Mr.  C.  of 
Chicago, whose  son  we  met  last  year  through 
the  LaF — 's !  Don't  tell  me  that  no  one  ever 
goes  to  St.  Petersburg !  We  sat  with  him  till 
after  2  p.  m.  (we  never  sleep),  during  which 
time  hetalked  of  Russian  affairs.  He  thinks  the 
condition  serious,  but  says  that  the  revolution 
has  been  going  on  over  forty  years,  and  will 
go  on  for  as  long  again;  this  being  nothing 
but  a  little  more  of  a  ruffle  at  the  surface.  The 
Jews  are  responsible,  being  the  financial  back- 

e:  50  3 


LETTERS 

ers  of  the  thing,  and  they  also  have  provinces 
under  their  control  by  usury.  They  own  most 
of  the  bar-rooms,  etc.,  and  make  the  peasants 
drunk,  after  w^hich  they  incite  them  to  the 
plundering  of  country  places.  The  Jew^s  here 
are  much  like  the  Armenians  in  Turkey,  not 
like  ours  at  all.  We  supped  at  a  place  w^here, 
on  New  Year's  night  last  year,  when  every- 
one was  there,  there  was  a  fight  between  two 
officers,  in  which  one  was  killed  right  in  the 
middle  of  the  room !  After  supper  we  walked 
home,  the  night  perfeftly  clear  and  the  moon 
and  all  the  stars  out.  The  temperature  is  about 
like  Newport  in  late  September,  clear  and 
brisk.  Of  course  the  whole  city  has  canals  go-- 
ing  through,  which  swarm  with  barges,  chiefly 
of  wood,  for  the  fires.  I  was  wrong  when  I 
said  the  houses  were  of  brick,  as  they  are 
stucco,  I  find.  When  we  finally  got  to  bed, 
there  was  a  note  from  Claude  R.,  asking  us  to 
lunch  with  him  to-day.  That  made  four  people 
in  one  day  whom  we  had  not  expefted  to 
meet!  As  soon  as  we  were  up  this  morning 
(8.30-9)  we  breakfasted,  and  called  on  Mr. 
C,  who  showed  us  a  lot  of  stuff,  of  which 
later.  Then  to  St.  Isaacs,which  is  a  most  mag- 
nificent place  like  a  Greek  cross,  and  huge, 
with  its  gold  dome  300  feet  high.  Inside,  it  is 
covered  with  mosaic  piftures,  a  great  deal  of 
gold  in  them,  jewelled  icons  with  diamonds  as 
C51   3 


LETTERS 

large  as  pigeon's  eggs  set  all  round.  The  col- 
umns on  the  screen  are  monoliths  of  malachite 
about  forty  feet  high,  and  with  two  lapis-lazuli 
ones  in  the  centre,  also  monoliths,  only  about 
twenty  feet.  The  inside  doors  are  of  bronze 
gold,  with  very  deep  reliefs  on  them,  while 
the  outer  sides  are  bronze,  equally  carved.  It 
is  most  impressive  and  barbaric.  Then  to  the 
Embassy,  to  get  papers  and  see  the  military 
attache.  After  that,  to  lunch  with  R — ,  and  then 
shopping;  getting  films,  paper,  maps,  etc.  As 
everything  closes  at  3  (the  sights,  I  mean), 
and  as  the  people  never  go  to  bed,  and  we  have 
to  see  the  Japanese  Minister  to-morrow  morn- 
ing, the  Lord  only  knows  how  much  more  we 
can  see.  The  Hermitage  is  closed. 

Everyone  tells  us  how  much  the  Russians 
drink,  but  we  have  only  seen  them  take  tea, 
except  light  wine  at  meals.  The  water  is  so 
bad  that  it  is  n't  even  used  to  brush  one's  teeth 
in,  and  from  appearances  the  Russians  don't 
use  it  ever.  Only  once  did  we  try  the  hors 
d'oeuvres  and  vodka;  the  raw  fish  is  delicious, 
but  the  ceremony  takes  too  long  for  our  short 
time.  We  walked  everywhere  this  afternoon, 
asking  our  way  in  the  shops  in  French.  We 
kept  seeing  arrests  made,  or  rather, a  few  sol- 
diers marching  off  the  prisoners ;  but  as  no  one 
looks  at  it,  we  did  n't  know  what  it  was  until 
we  were  told.  That  is  the  only  sign  of  unrest 

[52    J 


LETTERS 

we  have  seen  so  far.  Officers  and  soldiers  are 
everywhere.  The  people  (the  upper  classes, 
that  is )  are  smart  and  good-looking,  the  men 
very  large,  and  the  women,  one  and  all,  with 
wonderful  hair.  Droschkies  are  thick  as  flies ; 
we  don't  use  them,  as  one  has  to  bargain  with 
them,  except  when  we  have  to  find  the  hotel. 
One  bargains,  shakes  one's  head  and  walks 
on ;  then  they  all  shout,  four  or  five  at  once, 
and  follow.  Finally  you  grab  one  for  about 
30  kopeks  per  course,  which  is  more  than  the 
Russians  pay  at  that. 

To-night  we  are  off  to  a  small  native  theatre, 
where  they  dance  nothing  but  native  things, 
with  Mr.  C.  and  a  Russian  girl  who  lived  with 
them  in  America  for  a  year.  When  we  get  to 
bed  is  a  question,  for  to-morrow  is  our  last  day 
here,  and  there  are  only  two  days  in  Moscow. 
We  are  to  have  a  letter  from  the  Russian 
Minister  of  Ways  and  Communications,  and 
one  from  the  Japanese  Minister  as  well.  That 
ought  to  make  everything  easy  for  us. 

I  write  so  little  of  what  I  want  that  I  am 
ashamed,  but  each  new  experience  drives  out 
the  last,  and  it  is  only  by  keeping  headings 
that  I  can  remember  anything.  When  I  am 
once  in  Mukden  things  will  be  better,  and  I 
shall  have  some  pi6lures  to  send  back. 

Love  to  all, 

Neil 

c:  53  3 


LETTERS 

[TO  HIS  MOTHER] 

Moscow,  Sept.  14 

Dearest  M-~: 

Yesterday  we  did  the  Hermitage,  and  got 
perfeftly  dizzy  seeing  all  the  most  famous 
pi6lures  in  the  world.  The  place  was  closed, 
but  half  a  rouble  gave  us  an  entrance  in  great 
shape.  As  we  only  had  an  hour,  we  merely 
rushed  through,  stopping  chiefly  at  the  Van- 
dykes and  Rembrandts  and  Velasquez.  Then 
to  lunch  with  the  Associated  Press  man,  get- 
ting news,  and  afterward  to  the  Japanese  Le- 
gation for  a  vise,  and  to  Peter  and  Paul.  That 
is  really  the  most  impressive  church  in  St. 
Petersburg,  crowded  with  flags,  and  all  the 
Romanoff  tombs  with  their  little  lights  in  sil- 
ver crowns,  and  covered  with  gold  and  silver 
wreaths.  Then  dinner  and  the  train. 

We  got  here  at  about  11  a.m.,  and  after  the 
hotel  went  to  the  consul,  a  nice  man  of  about 
45,  who  was  very  kind,  offering  to  do  every- 
thing for  us;  but  as  Straight  has  a  cold  we 
merely  had  lunch  and  he  lay  down,  while  I 
got  hold  of  the  A.  P.  man,  a  Bulgarian  named 
S —  who  was  in  Cambridge,  1904.  He  and  I 
walked  through  the  Kremlin,  which  is  a  for- 
tress in  another  walled  city  ( called  the  Chi- 
nese city).  I  can't  describe  it,  except  by  say- 
ing that  it  reminds  me  of  Constantinople  and 
C  54  ] 


LETTERS 

Straight  of  China.  Everything  is  bright-col- 
oured, but  so  dirty !  There  are  some  five  or 
six  hundred  churches  here,  whose  spires  show 
everywhere.  Usually  the  dome  is  gold,  though 
in  many  cases  green,  or  blue,  or  both.  Around 
the  main  court  in  the  Kremlin  there  are  about 
750  cannon  which  Napoleon  left  in  his  hurry. 
The  town  is  much  busier  than  St.  Petersburg, 
and  as  everywhere  the  streets  are  cobbled  is 
as  noisy  as  the  d — 1.  It  is  not  etiquette  to  take 
pi6lures,  so  I  don't  know  how  my  small  ones 
will  come  out — but  I  hope  they  will.  All  the 
policemen  are  armed  here  with  rifles  and  bay- 
onets, but  everything  is  very  quiet  in  appear- 
ance. From  the  Japs  yesterday  we  learned  that 
they  expe6l  that  the  R.R.is  conne6led  through 
by  now,  which  will  save  us  about  fifty  miles 
by  cart. 

S —  is  very  nice,  and  crazy  to  talk  about  Har- 
vard, though  he  was  in  America  last  year.  He 
has  only  been  here  about  a  month,  but  in  St. 
Petersburg  they  told  us  that  he  was  the  com- 
ing man  in  the  Associated  Press.  All  the  time 
while  we  were  walking  about,  he  pointed  out 
the  various  quarters  where  the  different  per- 
sons live.  I  only  hope  we  can  get  hold  of  him 
to-morrow.  Our  plan  is  to  go  to  the  Ouspen- 
sky  church  in  the  morning  and  hear  the  choir. 
It  is  supposed  to  be  the  best  in  Russia.  After 
that  we  can  "do"  the  Kremlin,  and  whatever 


LETTERS 

we  have  time  for,  till  the  ballet  in  the  even- 
ing and  the  train  at  1 1  p.m.  Then  for  four- 
teen days  we  steam,  with  no  chance  of  a  bath 
under  two  roubles ;  but  we  have  towels  and  a 
rubber  tub,  so  I  fancy  we  shall  be  less  unplea- 
sant than  most  Russians,  at  any  rate. 

I  have  forgotten  whether  I  wrote  about  the 
dancing  at  the  little  Russia  theatre.  It  was  per- 
fe6lly  bully ;  all  in  native  dress,  and  with  their 
own  songs  and  music.  The  dancing  chiefly 
consists  of  leaps  and  twirls  and  a  thing  like 
the  ''tailor's  dance,''  with  incessant  shouts. 
After  that  we  went  to  the  "  Summer  Garden,'' 
which  is  a  sort  of  Coney  Island,  on  a  very 
small,  poor  scale,  only  they  have  an  indoor 
opera,  where  we  heard  an  a6l  of  an  opera  by 
Tschaikovsky  ( I  don't  know  how  to  spell  him, 
or  which  it  was).  In  these  places  I  discovered 
that  Russian  sounds  just  like  Italian. 

I  have  just  dined  alone  with  S —  (Straight 
is  in  bed,  but  much  better),  during  which  he 
gave  a  most  interesting  talk  on  Bulgaria.  Also 
he  said,  casually,  that  when  Austria  breaks  up 
"of  course  the  Slavs  will  rule  it."  He  is  com- 
ing round  to-morrow  to  take  us  about,  after 
which  I  shall  try  to  Write  some  more. 

Love,  M-  -, 

Neil 


C56] 


LETTERS 

[  TO  HIS  MOTHER  ] 

Sept.  15 

Dearest  M--: 

To-day  we  went,  at  about  9.30,  to  hear  the 
choir  in  the  Ouspensky  church,  and  it  was  sim- 
ply wonderful.  In  the  first  place,  the  churches 
here  are  frescoed  all  over  with  piftures  of 
Heaven,  the  Lord,  the  Virgin,  Christ,  and  all 
the  saints  of  that  church,  and  others.  The  in- 
side was  one  mass  of  gold,  brass,  gilt  and 
paint,  everywhere, — walls,  columns,  screen 
and  ceiling.  The  place  was  jammed,  everyone 
standing,  and  from  the  continual  bowing  and 
crossing  it  looked  like  a  great  sea,  beyond 
which  the  priests  in  gorgeous  yellow  vest- 
ments rose  up.  The  choir  was  superb.  The 
members  join  it  at  the  age  of  five,  and  as  their 
best  men  train  it,  you  can  understand  why  it 
is  so  good.  After  that  we  went  into  two  more 
churches,  just  to  see  them,  and  while  they 
were  n't  so  fine,  they  were  pretty  wonderful. 
Then  we  went  to  the  palace,  and  after  some 
dickering  and  the  produ6lion  of  our  Russian 
letter,  we  were  admitted,  though  it  was  closed. 
It  is  where  Sergius  was  living  before  his  death. 
It  is  almost  entirely  Oriental  in  style,  with  a 
wealth  of  coloured  decoration.  There  we  saw 
Napoleon's  rooms  and  the  bed  he  used.  There 
are  three  thrones  and  throne-rooms,  each 

c  57  3 


LETTERS 

wonderful  and  different.  One  they  use  for  the 
Coronation  reception,  and  it  is  entirely  cov- 
ered with  decorations  made  by  peasants,  which 
are  really  extraordinary.  The  next  is  entered 
through  four  great  rooms,  each  consisting  of 
the  rooms  of  the  great  orders:  St.  George, 
Vladimir,  St.  Andrew,  and  one  other  I  forget. 
I  wish  I  could  describe  any  of  it  to  you — all 
I  can  say  is  that  the  first  room  is  old  Russian 
and  the  rest  Italian.  Then  we  climbed  Ivan's 
Tower  for  the  view,  then  to  lunch  at  a  very 
Russian  place;  S —  and  Straight  both  there; 
Straight's  cold  is  better.  After  lunch  we  went 
to  a  Russian  gallery, the  Kretyakopsky, where 
there  are  none  but  Russian  pi6lures.  There 
were,  of  course,  hundreds  of  Vereschagin,  but 
we  were  fairly  tired,  and  they  were  hung  too 
close,  so  we  really  got  no  impression,  except 
one  perfeftly  horrible  and  haunting  one  of  the 
murder  of  Ivan  the  Terrible's  son  by  Ivan 
himself,  which  is  far  the  most  horrible  thing 
that  I  have  ever  seen — and  awfully  well  done. 
That  finished  us ;  and  here  we  are,  resting  be- 
fore our  start.  One  thing  in  the  gallery  that 
was  fine  was  the  crowd,  who  were  real  Mus- 
covites, poor  and  rich  alike.  The  men  of  the 
upper  class  are  fine-looking,  but  the  women 
very  much  made  up  and  badly  drest  ( notice 
the  new  spelling!).  The  lower  class  is  very 
stupid-looking,  and  so  dirty  that  one  hates  to 
1158  ] 


LETTERS 

be  touched  by  them.  This  city,  far  more  than 
Constantinople,  shows  the  jun6lure  of  the  East 
and  West.  What  we  should  have  done  with- 
out S —  I  don't  know.  He  is  very  nice,  very 
bright  and  interesting,  and  a  good  talker.  To- 
night we  dine  with  him  before  starting.  He 
told  me  that  TrepofF  w^5  poisoned — this  city 
is  very  liberal  in  its  views — and  some  other 
things  which  I  will  write  later. 
Now  I  must  pack ;  good-bye. 

Love  to  all, 

Neil 


[TO  HIS  BROTHER] 

Sept.  I J  (?)  en  route 

Dear  B— : 

I  AM  ashamed  not  to  have  written  you,  but  I 
literally  have  n't  had  a  minute  till  we  got  on 
this  train,  and  have  n't  written  to  anyone  ex- 
cept M-  -.  I  have  an  awful  lot  to  thank  you 
for;  for  I  stopped  at  Harman's  and  got  quite 
a  number  of  shirts,  and  at  Hatchard's  a  few 
books  beside  Brinkley,  such  as  Russian  and 
Chinese  Manuals,  a  map,  the  Repubhc  of  Plato 
and  Marcus  Aurelius.  This,  with  a  few  books 
Straight  got,  furnish  us  with  our  reading  mat- 
ter, but  as  a  matter  of  fa6l,  we  don't  read  very 
much,  as  there  is  an  old  Russian  General  who 
is  going  out  also,  and  who  speaks  French  and 

i:  59  n 


LETTERS 

a  little  English;  so  we  chat  a  good  deal.  Every- 
one says  that  we  cannot  find  out  anything 
about  trains  in  Russia,  and  it's  very  true,  as 
we  were  told  that  this  one  had  a  wagon-lit, 
but  when  we  got  on  we  found  it  only  first- 
class  carriages,  and  were  crammed  into  one 
compartment.  However,  by  showing  more 
money  and  getting  the  Associated  Press  man 
at  Moscow  ( he  saw  us  off)  to  tell  the  conduc- 
tor that  we  were  very  great  officials,  we  have 
managed  to  get  two  places  now,  and  though 
they  are  at  opposite  ends  of  the  car  they  are 
much  more  comfortable,  as  our  nine  pieces  of 
luggage  took  up  all  the  room.  (The  train  is 
going  at  about  12  miles  an  hour,  and  very 
jerky.)  Thank  Heaven  you  have  seen  St. 
Petersburg  and  Moscow,  because  I  cannot 
describe  them  at  all,  and  yet,  when  I  wrote 
M--  I  felt  as  if  I  must  try.  The  country  is 
much  what  you  must  have  seen  coming  up 
from  the  south,  great  rolling  plains,  very  rich 
but  only  partially  cultivated,  with  little  clus- 
ters of  houses  here  and  there,  which  look  like 
haystacks,  being  heavily  thatched,  with  wat- 
tled ends.  The  towns  we  stop  at  are  all  some 
distance  from  the  stations,  so  we  scarcely  see 
more  than  the  station  itself  with  its  crowds  of 
apple  and  melon  sellers  in  rags  and  tatters.  I 
have  taken  some  pi6lures  which  I  hope  will 
turn  out  well ;  my  first  camera  I  dropped  from 

ceo] 


LETTERS 

a  cab  in  Berlin  and  it  got  cracked,  so  I  had 
to  buy  another  in  St.  Petersburg. 

The  train  is  crowded,  partly  with  officers, 
partly  women-folk,  and  a  civilian  or  two  and 
a  Chinaman.  So  far  as  we  know  the  General 
is  the  only  one  who  speaks  French  or  English, 
but  the  train  hands  understand  our  signs  very 
well.  Our  conduftor  is  named  Simeon,  a  very 
friendly  chap,  who  talks  to  us  every  time  he 
gets  a  chance.  One  of  the  funniest  things  im- 
aginable is  to  see  Straight  talking  to  him — 
they  each  gesticulate  and  say  ''da,  da,''  to 
each  other,  which  means  "yes."  We  won  his 
heart  when  he  gave  us  the  new  room,  by  a 
rouble,  so  now  he  comes  on  the  run  to  open 
windows  and  the  like.  The  food  is  excellent 
and  very  cheap,  served  in  a  very  nice  car  with 
a  piano  in  one  end,  and  a  bookshelf  in  the 
other.  If  you  get  tired  of  that  you  can  get  out 
at  stations  (we  stop  at  lots),  where  we  stay 
anywhere  from  lo  to  20  minutes,  and  where 
the  buffet  is  excellent.  On  the  whole,  except 
for  the  private  bathrooms  in  wagon-lits,  we 
are  as  comfortable  as  could  be.  We  have  n't 
yet  reached  Siberia,  but  shall  to-morrow,  and 
then  we  shall  go  through  the  Urals  for  a  bit. 
It  is  a  14-day  trip  to  Harbin,  and  about  five 
south  to  Mukden,  where,  according  to  the  last 
plan,  I  stay,  while  Straight  goes  on  for  orders 
to  Peking.  We  are  now  passing  about  forty 


LETTERS 

windmills,  just  like  the  Newport  ones. 

Everyone  is  as  kind  as  can  be,  and  we  have 
( till  we  struck  the  train )  always  had  friends 
to  play  with:  Bob  B.  and  E— ,  Kirk  B.  and 
McC — ,  and  S — ,aBulgarian  and  Harvard '04, 
in  Moscow.  He  is  the  Associated  Press  man. 
We  have  a  letter  from  the  Minister  of  Ways 
and  Communications  which  will  open  every- 
thing to  us,  but  which  we  have  only  used  as 
yet  to  get  into  the  Palace  at  Moscow.  When 
you  come  out  to  see  me,  come  this  way. 

Love  to  E— .  Many  thanks.  Affly, 

Neil 


[  TO  HIS  MOTHER  ] 

Sept.  18 

Dearest  M--: 

Here  we  are,  stalled  on  a  siding,  waiting  for 
the  Lord  knows  what  to  happen,  just  about 
half  a  mile  from  the  monument  which  marks 
the  end  of  Europe  and  the  beginning  of  Asia. 
As  the  train  is  too  joggly  to  permit  writing 
when  we  go  (though  I  did  write  to  B — ),  I 
have  to  try  this  minute,  though  there  seems  to 
be  very  little  chance  of  a  letter  ever  getting 
through  from  here. 

The  country  continues  to  be  like  New  Eng- 
land, with  birches  and  firs,  and  then  great 
open,  rich-looking  plains,  with  no  cultivation 

C62 : 


LETTERS 

to  speak  of;  and  though  we  are  in  the  midst  of 
the  Urals,  it  is  only  about  as  hilly  as  Baden- 
Baden;  nice  rounded  hills,  covered  with  dark 
masses  of  firs,  and  here  and  there  patches  of 
colour  from  the  turning  birches.  The  air  is 
wonderfully  soft  and  warm,  far  warmer  than 
at  St.  Petersburg.  The  train  is  not  wagon-lit, 
though  everyone  swore  it  would  be,  but  we 
are  really  very  comfortable  in  our  first-class 
compartments.  We  each  have  one  at  either 
end  of  the  car,  and  the  buffet  could  n't  be  bet- 
ter, though  the  lack  of  French  or  English  is 
quite  inconvenient.  Fortunately  there  is  a  very 
dirty  old  Russian  General  who  speaks  French 
well  and  English  in  a  very  queer  manner,  and 
who  has  lived  for  18  years  in  the  Caucasus. 
He  translates  our  greatest  needs  for  us,  in  re- 
turn for  which  we  have  lent  him  some  books 
on  the  war  and  a  few  cigarettes.  He  talks  well, 
and  I  am  glad  he  is  here,  for  it  makes  me 
speak  French,  more  or  less. 

The  villages  are  the  funniest  things  you  can 
imagine,  but  oh,  so  poor.  Half  the  time  you 
cannot  tell  a  house  from  a  haystack,  and  the 
people  are  in  rags.  We  stop  about  ten  times 
a  day,  for  a  few  minutes  at  a  time  (in  which  I 
always  mean  to  write,  but  get  out  and  stretch 
instead ) ,  and  the  station  is  always  crowded 
with  apple-sellers  and  loafers.  I  have  taken  a 
few  piftures  which  I  hope  will  come  out,  but 


LETTERS 

as  most  of  them  are  attempts  at  passing  vil- 
lages, I  have  some  doubts.  There  is  also  a 
Chinaman  on  board,  whom  w^e  use  as  inter- 
preter when  the  General  is  asleep,  which  is 
most  of  the  time.  Straight  talks  to  him  in  Chi- 
nese, he  to  the  porter  in  Russian,  back  into 
Chinese,  and  then  into  English  for  me  !  Our 
condu6lor  is  named  Simeon,  and  a  greater  liar 
never  breathed.  We  tried  to  move  nearer  one 
another,  but  though  we  each  have  a  spare 
room  next  us,  we  could  n't,  because  Simeon 
said  they  were  for  ladies,  but  as  far  as  I  can 
make  out,  they  are  used  by  Simeon  and  his 
fellow  conduftors.  Outside  of  the  General 
and  the  Chinamen,  there  are  half  a  dozen  of- 
ficers ( small  fry )  with  their  wives  and  chil- 
dren, a  few  civilians,  and  two  or  three  very 
stout  Russian  matrons.  It  is  n't  like  our  travel 
at  all,  for  they  never  really  mix,  though  we 
are  allowed  to  speak  or  not,  as  we  like,  be- 
cause they  are  sure  that  we  are  "mad  Eng- 
lish" and  our  pumps  cause  great  excitement. 
They  all  look  as  if  they  slept  in  their  clothes, 
and  the  men  have  taken  this  opportunity  to 
grow  beards ;  we,  on  the  other  hand,  scanda- 
lize the  inhabitants  by  taking  a  sponge  bath 
( neither  soap  nor  towels  are  provided,  by  the 
way)  and  shaving.  Also,  our  rubber  collars 
give  us  an  almost  clean  appearance! 
Time  is  nothing;  and  no  two  watches  or 
I  64  3 


LETTERS 

clocks  agree.  For  instance:  when  we  lunched 
to-day,  the  station  clock  said  12. 15,  my  watch 
1.30  (Moscow  time,  I  think),  and  the  buffet 
clock  2.30.  However,  no  one  cares,  as  they 
seem  to  do  nothing  but  eat  and  sleep,  nor  do 
we,  for  the  country  has  a  very  dreamy  effeft 
on  one,  and  all  we  can  do  is  to  read  a  little 
and  look  out  of  the  window  a  great  deal.  At 
night  we  have  reading-lamps  on  our  tables, 
and  can  read  in  bed. 

It  seems  a  year  ago  that  I  left  Newport,  in- 
stead of  a  little  over  three  weeks,  and  even 
St.  Petersburg  seems  a  month  or  more  back. 

Love  to  all, 

Neil 


[  TO  HIS  MOTHER  ] 

Sept.  22 

Dearest  M--: 

The  last  time  I  wrote,  we  were  stopping  for 
another  train,  and  now  we  are  doing  the  same, 
only,  I  hope,  not  for  so  long,  as  at  Zlataoust 
we  waited  seven  weary  hours,  which,  how- 
ever, we  have  made  up,  all  but  30  minutes. 

The  days  are  very  monotonous,  and  for  that 
reason  pass  so  quickly  that  one  loses  all  sense 
of  time ;  added  to  that  is  the  curious  way  in 
which  the  train  goes  on  St.  Petersburg  time, 
the  time-table  by  Moscow  time,  the  dining- 
C  65  3 


LETTERS 

room  clock  by  local  time,  and  Straight  and  I 
by  a  time  of  our  own.  As  far  as  we  can  make 
out,  though,  we  get  to  Irkoustsk  at  night,  so 
we  shan't  be  able  to  see  Baikal,  unfortunately. 
Once  there,  however,  and  our  journey's  back 
is  broken,  and  Mukden  within  a  week  or  ten 
days,  with  luck.  Straight  has  found  another 
friend,  a  man  (Russian)  who  used  to  be  in 
Peking  when  he  was  there,  and  as  his  English 
is  much  better  than  our  dirty  old  General's,  we 
mean  to  chng  to  him;  so  most  of  to-day  we 
have  been  presenting  him  with  cigars  and  mak- 
ing up  in  every  way.  Our  cigars,  by  the  way, 
are  German,  at  30  pfg.,  and  are  named  "  Rara 
Avis,"  which  we  hope  means  they  are  the  last 
of  the  flock.  In  return,  he  has  been  giving 
us  lots  of  information  which  we  wanted  very 
much, but  could  n't  well  ask :  about  railways  to 
China,  situation  and  numbers  of  troops,  etc., 
all  which  he  gave  us  in  a  most  innocent  man- 
ner. He  is  the  only  person  on  the  train  who 
knows  what  we  are,  the  rest  just  think  we  are 
mad  English,  and  wonder  at  our  boots ;  the 
General  went  so  far  as  to  price  them.  Last 
night  we  had  quite  a  scare  when  the  General 
told  us  that  more  people  were  expefted  to  get 
on  at  Taigu,  so  we  had  better  buy  our  upper 
berths,  in  case  they  should  try  to  get  in  on 
us ;  but  as  that  meant  70  roubles,  we  merely 
tipped  Simeon  with  two,  and  locked  our  doors. 
166-2 


LETTERS 

If  any  one  did  get  on,  I  don't  know  nor  care — 
we  were  comfortable.  (We  have  just  started, 
and  the  movement  is  awful,  so  I  may  have  to 
stop  any  second. ) 

The  landscape  is  the  same  sort,  only  wilder, 
and  the  houses  very  bad  still,  only  the  towns 
seem  larger.  In  the  guide-book  when  one 
reads  of  a  town  of  five  thousand  houses  it 
seems  quite  large  and  important,  till  one  sees 
that  only  two  are  of  stone,  and  the  rest  (though 
it  don't  say  so )  are  unpainted  wood.  And  when 
you  get  to  these  large  towns  you  cannot  buy 
stamps  at  the  station,  so  one  may  have  to  carry 
a  letter  a  whole  day  without  posting  it. 

One  of  my  neighbours  has  a  dulcimer  which 
is  played  all  day  long,  but,  like  mine,  you  can- 
not hear  it,  unless  you  walk  into  his  state- 
room, which  ain't  polite  on  this  train !  The  food 
continues  excellent  (I  weigh  4/^  puds  now 
from  it),  and  last  night  we  ate  a  sterlet,  which 
is  quite  the  most  delicious  fish  I  ever  dreamed 
of.  Its  meat  is  soft  as  a  cream  puff^,  yet  it  looks 
like  a  pike,  and  has  a  very  hard  shell  on  its 
head.  It  was  just  out  of  the  river  at  Ob. 

To-day  is  my  birthday,  which  faft  was  called 
to  my  notice  ( the  only  calendar  I  can  see  is  in 
Russian )  by  Straight's  coming  into  my  room 
with  kind  remarks,  and  giving  me  a  present 
from  J.  C.  F.  consisting  of  ten  of  those  small 
volumes  of  "Shikspur."  I  was  studying  Chi- 
I  67  -2 


LETTERS 

nese,  at  the  time,  and  finding  that  Ssii  has  seven 
or  eight  entirely  different  meanings,  so  it  was 
a  very  w^elcome  thing ;  since  when  I  have  de- 
clared a  holiday,  and  to-night  mean  to  have — 
or  rather  give — a  dinner,  with  caviar  and  Rus- 
sian white  wine,  just  to  show. 

It  is  very  exciting  writing  with  this  motion, 
as  one  never  knows  where  one's  pen  will 
strike  the  paper.  Also  I  have  no  stamps,  nor 
could  I  get  any  at  Bogotol,  so  when  it  will  be 
posted,  or  if  it  ever  gets  to  you,  time  only  can 
tell.  There  is  nothing  in  it — so  it  don't  matter. 
By  the  way,  this  is  the  land  of  the  Golden 
Horde  still,  now  occupied  by  Kirgiz,  who  are 
even  dirtier  than  the  true  Russ. 

Love,  my  dearest, 

Neil 


[FROM  A  LETTER  TO  H.  L.] 

Sept.  23 

Dear  H— : 

I  AM  most  thoroughly  ashamed  of  myself  for 
not  having  written  and  thanked  you.  How- 
ever, better  late  than  never  (though  it  may 
be  never  as  the  post  here  is  very  strange) 
and  please  accept  my  thanks. 

I  am  so  dead  sick  of  describing  this  old  God- 
forsaken Russian  landscape  that  I  won't  even 
attempt  it  except  to  say  that  the  mountains 
C68  n 


LETTERS 

we  should  call  hills,  the  rivers  trout-brooks 
and  the  forests  shrubbery.  And  the  people!!! 
Why,  the  way  we  know  when  we  are  passing 
a  town  ( you  can't  see  it  when  you  get  there, 
partly  because  it  ain't,  and  partly  because  the 
people  live  in  haystacks )  is  by  the  smell ;  not 
cooking  or  any  smell  like  that,  but  of  unwashed 
human  beings.  Next  you  see  a  blue- white  va- 
pour going  up  like  a  column,  which  is  solidify- 
ing smell ;  after  the  winter  sets  in  this  freezes, 
falls  to  the  ground  and  is  cut  up  for  manure. 
Then  you  hold  your  nose  and  venture  out  on 
the  platform  for  exercise.  Once  there  you  step 
over,  around  and  finally  into  every  sort  of 
filth.  Occasionally  some  of  the  passengers  get 
bogged  and  left.  There  is  lots  of  water,  too, 
only  one  can't  drink  it  because  of  germs,  so  the 
poor  untaught  Russian  lets  it  be,  not  know- 
ing what  to  use  it  for.  All  this  is  outside,  but 
we  have  our  petty  woes  in  the  train  as  well. 
We  have  to  pass  through  the  2nd  class  to  get 
to  our  meals.  We  do  it  on  the  run,  and  once  in 
the  dining-car,  find  that  our  appetite  is  gone,  so 
we  eat  one  apple  and  gulp  down  some  tea,  and 
return  fainting  to  our  staterooms.  Of  course 
it  is  n't  very  nourishing,  but  it  is  cheap!  After 
we  have  gained  strength  we  poke  our  heads 
out  and  converse  with  a  very  dirty  old  be- 
whiskered  General,  whose  English  is  as  good 
as  a  Chinese  puzzle.  Poor  chap!  I  am  really 
C69-] 


LETTERS 

sorry  for  him — he  loves  to  talk,  and  yet  is  so 
lonely.  By  the  way,  he  did  tell  me  a  very 
funny  incident  of  the  wars  against  the  Bok- 
hariots  in  Persia.  His  troops  had  just  crossed 
a  river  and  no  sooner  were  they  on  the  other 
bank  than  they  lay  down  and  lifted  their  legs 
up  to  let  the  water  run  out  of  their  boots.  The 
Bokhariots  saw  it  and  thought  it  was  necro- 
mancy, so  they  turned  and  fled.  He  is  a  born 
a6tor,  and  told  it  with  more  spirit  than  I  can 
or  have  room  for. 

Now  we  are  at  another  town,  where  you 
get  posted,  so  goo'  bye. 

Neil 

Just  wait  till  you  eat  Russian  caviar  in  Rus- 
sia!!! 


[FROM  A  LETTER  TO  MISS  J.  M.] 
Somewhere  between an 


Sept.  23 


This  is  the  land  of  the  glutton,  not  the  two- 
legged  kind  one  meets  at  New  York  dinners, 
but  a  great  furry  wild  beast  who  is  very  hard 
to  catch.  That  I  know,  because  I  have  tried 
all  day,  leaning  out  of  my  window  and  mak- 
ing noises  like  every  kind  of  meat  or  vege- 
table you  can  think  of,  yet  he  has  not  shown 

C  70  ] 


LETTERS 

himself  at  all.  I  know  he  is  here,  because  the 
guide  tells  me  so,  but  what  he  is  I  have  n't 
the  faintest  idea. 

I  shall  have  to  learn  how  to  write  a  letter, 
because  I  never  say  what  I  want  to;  when 
you  talk,  things  don't  seem  so  foolish  some- 
how! 


[TO  HIS  MOTHER]  ;. 

Baikal,  Sept.  25 

Dearest  M--: 

The  train  is  worse  than  ever  in  regard  to  jer- 
kiness,  but  about  a  thousand  times  better  in 
other  ways,  cleanliness,  appointments,  etc. ,  for 
we  changed  at  Irkutsk  last  night  at  8.  The 
change  was  a  bore  at  first,  we  had  to  wait  for 
an  hour,  I  guarding  our  luggage  that  we  have 
in  our  cabins,  while  Straight  got  the  number 
of  our  berths  put  on  the  tickets.  Luck  is  cer- 
tainly with  us,  for  we  were  next  an  empty  com- 
partment, and  by  a  present  of  three  roubles  to 
the  guard  we  got  it,  so  now  we  have  two  clean 
rooms  with  a  double  door  between;  in  fa6l, 
we  are  as  comfortable  as  possible,  and  there 
are  three  bathrooms,  or  rather  washrooms, 
on  our  car!  The  same  crowd  is  with  us  still, 
augmented  by  an  old  Irishman  whom  I  have 
only  just  spoken  to.  He  is  very  investigating, 
and  has  a  courier  who  looks  bored  to  death. 
I  71   •} 


LETTERS 

However,  as  we  have  till  Friday  on  this  train, 
we  shall  probably  get  chummy  with  him,  and 
perhaps  borrow  his  courier  at  Harbin  where 
the  train  stops  for  two  hours.  That  is,  if  the 
American  consul  does  n't  meet  us, but  we  hope 
he  will,  as  we  wired  from  Irkutsk.  We  asked 
the  Pekinese  Russian  to  dinner  with  us,  for 
he  had  been  invaluable  on  the  platform,  and 
dined  very  well  in  a  much  better  diner,  while 
the  train  stood  still.  (One  of  the  brakes  was 
out  of  order, — had  been  all  day, — but  no  one 
ever  thought  of  fixing  it  till  we  were  about 
to  start. )  The  result  was  that  we  were  two 
hours  and  more  late  in  starting ;  all  the  bet- 
ter, as  we  were  able  to  see  Baikal  this  morn- 
ing. Straight  waked  me  at  6.30,  and  we  sat 
looking  out  on  a  vast  sheet  of  water  under  a 
leaden  sky,  with  regular  mountains  on  the 
opposite  shore.  The  lower  clouds  were  like 
very  white  mist,  and  hung  round  the  tops  so 
that  they  looked  like  snow  ( we  saw  patches  of 
snow  yesterday  in  the  fields ) ,  and  on  the  other 
side  were  real  snow-capped  peaks,  quite  awe- 
inspiring  in  the  early  light.  Suddenly,  in  the 
southeast,  a  very  narrow  rift  in  the  clouds  on 
the  horizon  of  the  lake  appeared,  and  there, 
in  a  minute,  the  sun  shot  up,  and  the  moun- 
tains were  turned  quite  a  wonderful  pink.  It 
was  just  like  Homer  and  his  "rosy-fingered 
Dawn."  The  rift  did  not  grow  any  larger,  so 

c  72 :] 


LETTERS 

that  soon  there  was  only  a  narrow  line  of 
gold,  with  the  dark  sky  everywhere.  This 
gradually  lighted  up,  and  now  we  have  an  or- 
dinary sunny  day.  After  a  while,  about  9,  we 
breakfasted,  and  since  then,  till  I  began  this, 
we  have  written  and  looked  at  the  lake.  It 
looks  the  way  Norway  must  with  its  fiords, for 
on  the  opposite  shore,  three  or  four  miles  off, 
there  seem  to  be  little  inlets  in  the  mountains. 
At  times  we  have  had  to  go  very  slowly, as  the 
track  is  built  right  at  the  edge  of  the  lake,  and 
on  sand.  Also  we  saw  the  famous  ice-breaker 
crossing  the  lake, looking  like  an  ocean  steam- 
er. At  the  last  stop  we  left  the  lake,  very  sorry 
to  part  from  it.  I  don't  think  I  shall  ever  for- 
get that  sunrise, —  it  is  classed  with  my  old 
arrival  at  Constantinople.  Now  we  are  going 
through  the  same  old  birch  trees  and  firs.  The 
people  seem  much  the  same,  only  there  are 
more  soldiers  round,  and  more  of  those  very 
large  furry  hats  seen  at  the  stations.  But  the 
air!  it  is  perfe6lly  clear,  soft  and  bracing, 
rather  cold ;  but  at  stations  when  one  walks 
furiously  for  the  stop  or  tries  to  buy  stamps 
(they  are  very  hard  to  get — I  took  all  there 
were  at  the  last  stop,  and  only  got  enough 
for  three  letters  and  five  or  six  post-cards, 
and  then  had  to  divide  with  Straight,  who  had 
been  wise  and  written  letters  while  I  did  post- 
cards )  it  only  serves  to  get  your  blood  run- 

n  73  ] 


LETTERS 

ning,  and  you  feel  splendidly  after  the  exer- 
cise. 

I  wish  I  had  more  nerve  in  taking  pi6lures, 
but  I  cannot  go  up  to  a  group  of  beggars  and 
snap  them.  However,  I  have  taken  some,  and 
only  hope  they  will  turn  out  well. 

Just  think,  inside  of  a  week  we  shall  be  at 
Mukden.  To-day  is  the  first  of  our  fifth  week 
of  travel,  and  only  eight  days'  stop,  all  told. 
I  may  go  to  Peking  after  all,  but  it  all  depends 
on  Arnell,  of  whom  of  course  we  have  heard 
nothing,  nor  shall,  till  we  get  to  Mukden. 

Best  love, 

Neil 


[TO  HIS  SISTER] 

Somewhere  east  of  Baikal,  on  your  R.R. 

Sept.  25/46  p.m,  {Local  Time) 

Dearest  S — : 

Here  I  am  aftually  more  than  halfway  across 
Siberia,  less  than  halfway  around  the  world 
by  one  or  two  days,  and  sitting  in  a  very  com- 
fortable car  (rather  jerky, to  be  sure),  writing 
on  my  own  table  with  my  own  eleftric  read- 
ing-lamp ! 

The  scenery  is  very  monotonous,  or  rather 
has  been  until  to-day,  nothing  but  vast  plains 
with  patches  of  forest, — entirely  birch  for  the 
first  part  and  later  more  and  more  firs,  till  now 

c:  743 


LETTERS 

the  birches  are  scarce,  and  here  and  there  lit- 
tle places  where  the  peasants  have  attempted 
in  the  rudest  manner  possible  to  cultivate.  The 
villages  are  very  forlorn,  sometimes  like  hay- 
stacks, sometimes  dug-outs,  and  sometimes 
little  w^ooden  houses  about  as  big  as  the  shop 
— unpainted  and  showing  every  sign  of  decay. 
When  they  mend  the  roof  they  throw  on  a 
few  loose  planks,  and  then  put  dirt  on  top  to 
hold  them  in  place.  In  this,  small  bushes  grow, 
giving  the  queerest  possible  appearance.  Yet 
for  all  the  monotony  I  would  n't  have  missed 
it  for  the  world,  and  when  you  come  out  to 
see  me  do  it  that  way,  only  take  the  wagon- 
lit  ^ram,  which  leaves  Moscow  every  Wednes- 
day, as  our  train  as  far  as  Irkutsk  was  too 
filthy  for  words.  For  all  that  we  were  very 
comfortable  and  thought  ourselves  lucky,  un- 
til we  struck  this  train  which  showed  us  how 
good  it  might  have  been.  Here  they  aftually 
brush  the  floors  every  day ! 

We  are  not  very  sociable  with  most  of  the 
passengers — only  talk  to  a  German  ( he  knows 
no  English  or  French,  so  our  conversations 
are  not  as  brilliant  or  long  as  might  be — and 
consist  in  pointing  to  a  mountain  and  saying  it 
is  one,  or  a  town,  yet  we  are  very  friendly), 
the  Pekinese  Russian,  a  Frenchman  ( not  very 
intimate  here),  the  Dirty  General,  and  now 
the  Irishman,  with  whom  we  have  exchanged 

c  75  n 


LETTERS 

only  a  few  words  as  yet.  The  General  was 
our  first  friend, but  is  so  dirty, and  has  so  many 
fleas,  that  we  try  not  to  talk  with  him  except 
on  platforms.  The  Pekinese  on  the  other  hand 
is  clean,  speaks  very  good  English,  and  looks 
and  laughs  like  Rigo  T.  He  was  in  the  Russo- 
Chinese  bank  at  Peking,  but  now  is  head  of 
the  Russo-Chinese  schools  in  China — would 
like  to  join  us  and  go  down  from  Harbin,  but 
hasn't  the  necessary  permission,  so  he  goes 
by  Vladivostok.  We  gave  him  a  dinner  last 
night  in  payment  for  his  assistance  at  Irkutsk, 
for  without  him  we  should  probably  still  be 
there. 

To-day  the  landscape  has  been  marvellous — 
first  the  sunrise  at  Baikal,  which  I  tried  to  de- 
scribe in  the  letter  to  M-  -  posted  at  one  of 
the  towns — then  valleys  and  mountains  with 
nice  well-cultivated  fields  in  the  foreground. 
The  villages  too  are  better,  and  the  roads 
well  kept.  In  faft,  there  seems  here  to  be  a  re- 
gular organized  attempt  to  settle  the  country. 
Soldiers  everywhere ;  all  the  evacuated  troops 
seem  to  have  settled  along  the  line  with  their 
arms  and  guns — in  fa6l,it  does  n't  look  like  a 
long  peace  out  here.  At  the  last  station,  too, 
we  saw  our  first  Chinamen,  some  dozen  or  so, 
and  these  with  the  Buriats  give  the  appearance 
of  a  very  Eastern  place.  As  we  were  crawl- 
ing along  at  one  place  I  saw  a  real  troieka  ( .^ ) , 
C  76] 


LETTERS 

going  much  faster  than  we,  with  its  driver  in 
scarlet  and  a  very  much  overdressed  lady  sit- 
ting back  in  it.  Somehow  I  could  n't  quite  re- 
concile her  with  the  log  cabins  about, but  there 
may  be  some  big  places  farther  back.  Except 
for  the  mountains  it  still  looks  like  New  Eng- 
land when  you  don't  see  the  houses. 

Whether  any  of  my  letters  get  through  I 
don't  know,  but  I  hope  so.  It  seems  rather  un- 
safe to  post  them  in  the  little  stations  we  pass, 
but  it 's  the  only  way.  Probably  my  next  will 
be  from  Mukden,  where  we  hope  to  be  on  the 
30th. 

Love  to  all, 

Neil 


[FROM  A  LETTER  TO  THE  HON^''''  G.  H.] 

Khitar,  Sept.  z6th 

Dear  G— ,  M.  P. 

I  MEANT  to  write  before  to  impress  on  your 
mind  how  very  grateful  I  was  for  everything 
you  did  to  make  my  departure  from  London 
a  most  painful  one — which  indeed  it  was,  and 
not  until  I  met  a  little  vodka  in  Petersburg  did 
I  feel  my  old  cheerful  self  again.  However, 
this  is  so  much  earlier  than  my  other  letters 
to  you  that  I  hope  it  will  do,  and  if  they  are 
needed,  make  the  apologies  I  owe. 


c  77  1 


LETTERS 

So  far  it  has  been  a  very  varied  trip — friends 
every w^here — at  St.  Petersburg,  Moscow,  and 
now^  on  the  train,  where,  though  we  had  no 
friends,  we  now  have  hundreds,  both  man  and 
beast.  In  the  first  place  there  is  a  very  dirty  old 
be-whiskered  Russian  General,  who  speaks  a 
little  English  of  which  he  is  proud.  Of  course 
he  is  awfully  kind  and  all  that  ( he  saved  me 
once, of  which  more  later),  but  during  his  18 
years'  service  in  the  Caucasus  he  has  managed 
to  pick  up  and  train  in  Military  Art  a  vast 
army  of  fleas,  which,  being  moulded  on  Alex- 
ander's pattern,  no  sooner  see  a  new  being 
than  they  send  out  not  only  an  attacking  party, 
but  colonizers  as  well.  After  the  first  few  days 
the  old  Dirty  General  was  rather  lonely,  poor 
old  buck !  However,  yesterday  when  he  saved 
me  he  had  another  chance — and  took  it.  At 
some  small  town,  with  a  name  consisting  en- 
tirely of  vowels  written  backward,  I  got  off 
to  post  a  letter.  It  was  dusk  and  as  I  dis- 
mounted I  spoke  to  the  General ;  when  I  re- 
turned I  got  aboard  without  his  seeing  me.  No 
sooner  was  I  seated  than  the  signal  to  start  be- 
gan, and  I  heard  most  powerful  bello wings  of 
"  Mak'hast' —  Spee-eed !'' I  vaguely  wondered 
what  it  was  till  the  train  hands  came  in  and 
counted  me  2  or  3  times.  Then  I  sort  of  caught 
on  and  went  out  to  greet  the  D.  G.  He  at 
once  fell  on  my  neck  and  gave  me  his  largest 
1:  78  n 


LETTERS 

and  most  courageous  flea  as  a  mark  of  his  joy 
in  seeing  me  again.  Then  the  train  was  al- 
lowed to  proceed. 

Also  we  have  on  board  an  Irishman  of  the 
most  inquisitive  nature.  After  asking  me  whe- 
ther or  no  I  was  an  engineer,  a  newspaper 
man,  an  army  officer, a  merchant,  he  gave  up 
guessing  and  said:  "Well,  what  are  ye  then  .^^ " 
He  is  in  the  charge  of  the  most  forlorn-look- 
ing guide,  who  slouches  around  and  sighs 
in  a  heart-rending  manner  every  time  any 
question  is  asked.  When  the  Irishman  got  on 
( at  Irkutsk )  he  came  at  once  into  the  dining- 
car  and  made  remarks  about  everyone's  ap- 
pearance. We  are  quite  friendly  now.  It  came 
about  after  I  stole  all  his  stamps.  The  rest  of 
the  passengers  are  officers,  merchants,  wo- 
men, Chinese,  French,  Germans — in  fa6l, 
quite  a  cosmopolitan  crowd. 

For  a  revolutionary  country  give  me  Rus- 
sia. So  far,  except  for  some  arrests  we  saw  in 
Petersburg,  and  the  fa6l  that  the  police  are 
armed  with  rifles  and  bayonets, there  is  never 
a  sign  of  trouble.  Everyone  talks  perfeftly 
freely,  however,  and  here  and  there  one  sees 
revolutionary  documents.  The  work  of  the 
country  seems  to  go  on;  building  everywhere, 
especially  east  of  Baikal. 

I  never  saw  such  a  country  for  shooting  as 
there  is  here.  Game  of  all  sorts  from  shore 

179  3 


LETTERS 

birds  to  bears  and  elk,  and  no  one  to  shoot 
very  much.  In  faft,  as  far  as  I  can  see  they 
spend  most  of  their  time  watching  the  train 
come  in ;  a  very  ragged  crew  too. 
As  ever, 

Nelson  Fairchild 


[TO  HIS  MOTHER] 

Manchuria,  Sept.  zjth 

Dearest  M--: 

At  last  we  are  in  Manchuria,  but  still  have 
three  or  four  days  before  Mukden  is  reached ; 
at  least,  we  hope  that  is  all,  but  now  comes 
the  hard  part  of  travel.  Although  the  Jap  Le- 
gation at  St.  Petersburg  told  us  the  R.R.  was 
probably  finished,  it  seems  that  we  have  some 
thirty  miles  to  do,  either  in  a  hand-car  or  cart, 
before  we  reach  the  Jap  lines.  At  first  sight 
Manchuria  is  bleaker  than  anything  you  can 
imagine :  avast,  brown  plain  with  snow-capped 
hills  in  the  distance  and  the  wind  howling  as 
I  have  never  heard  it  before.  Chinese  appear 
at  the  stations  now,  not  like  our  Chinamen, 
but  big,  brown,  genial-looking  people,  wear- 
ing the  strangest  mixture  of  silk  and  rags. 
Their  houses  are  mere  dug-outs,  which  look 
like  little  mounds  except  for  the  chimneys. 
No  sign  of  any  extensive  settlements,  nor  of 
cultivation,  but  here  and  there  in  the  distance 

C  803 


LETTERS 

there  are  herds  of  cattle  or  horses.  Most  of  the 
stations  are  fortified  with  trenches  and  bar- 
ricades, while  a  Russian  R.R.  guard  marches 
up  and  down  with  a  rifle.  This  is  a  mere  sur- 
vival of  the  brigandage  after  the  war,  and  I 
fancy  from  the  desire  of  the  Russians  to  keep 
troops  here.  Manchuria  Station  was  the  most 
forlorn  spot  I  have  ever  seen,  a  mere  hand- 
ful of  barracks  and  a  church.  The  platform 
was  crowded  with  officers  and  their  wives, 
who  come  down  three  times  a  week,  when  the 
trains  come  in,  and  talk,  and  board  us  to  get 
caviar  and  coffee  and  vodka.  Khitar  was  the 
same,  only  more  so.  Since  then,  the  stops  have 
consisted  of  the  station  and  one  or  two  houses. 
This,  in  fa6l,is  the  Manchurian  "  Bad  Lands," 
and,  thank  Heaven,  we  leave  them  to-morrow 
at  Harbin. 

The  Irishman,  whom  I  wrote  of  last  time, 
made  us  quite  a  call  this  afternoon.  I  made  an 
enormous  hit  when  he  gave  me  his  card  ( Gae- 
lic on  the  reverse )  by  drawing  on  my  store  of 
Lady  Gregory,  and  "  Darby  O'Gill''  and  "A 
Lad  of  the  OTriels,''  and  showing  a  know- 
ledge of  the  thing.  Then  I  told  him  about 
teaching  Irish  history  in  the  Boston  schools. 
Then  I  stopped,  but  he  was  open-eyed,  and  as 
for  Straight,  he  simply  thought  he  was  dream- 
ing. After  all,  there  is  nothing  like  a  gimlet  at 
times !  He,  of  course,  belonged  to  the  League. 
C  81    ] 


LETTERS 

In  appearance  he  is  very  funny,  being  covered 
w^ith  strings:  one  for  his  hat,  another  for  his 
handkerchief,  a  third  for  his  pocketbook,  and 
so  on,  through  any  quantity  of  eyeglasses,  let- 
ter-cases,passports, etc.  Outside  of  the  League, 
his  only  pleasure  in  life  is  travelling  ( his  father 
w^as  a  chandler  and  starch  manufa6lurer), 
and  he  has  been  everywhere  but  to  Australia, 
for  w^hich  he  is  now  headed.  Does  n't  speak  a 
word  of  anything  but  Gaelic  and  English — 
and  in  that  order,  I  fancy.  So  he  tags  on  to  any 
English-speaking  person  he  can  find,  order- 
ing them  about  like  a  guide.  The  man  whom 
I  thought  his  courier  turns  out  to  be  a  lieu- 
tenant in  the  Russian  Navy ! 

The  old  General  is  still  with  us, — almost  all 
are,  in  fa6l, — but  he  is  very  friendly.  One 
evening,  when  he  saw  me  get  out  to  post  a 
letter  (the  one  to  S — )  he  held  the  train  some 
time,  as  I  got  on  another  car,  and  so  he  did  n't 
see  me.  When  I  heard  a  great  deal  of  yelling, 
which  after  some  time  I  made  out  to  be  Eng- 
lish, I  went  out  to  see  what  it  was,  and  the 
General  fell  into  my  arms  and  explained. 

That  is  really  the  only  incident  worthy  of 
the  name  since  Baikal,  and  the  way  they  have 
shifted  the  time  around  has  made  our  days 
very  short.  For  example:  we  got  up  (regu- 
larly) at  lo  by  our  watches,  which  were  cor- 
rect last  night,  and  when  we  got  to  breakfast 


LETTERS 

we  found  it  was  1.15!  By  regularly,  I  mean 
that  at  Manchuria  Station  we  went  out — we 
got  there  at  5.30  a.m.  by  some  sort  of  time, 
and  then  back  to  bed.  Now,  when  I  feel  rather 
ready  for  lunch,  I  find  it  is  tea-time. 

I  wonder  whether  any  of  these  letters  get 
through ! 

Best,  best  love, 

Neil 


[FROM  SOME  VERSES  CALLED  "RAILROAD 


RUSSIANS      WRITTEN  TO  E.  H.] 


The  merry  Kirghiz  never  hegs^ 
His  only  trouble  is  his  legs^ 
And  very  long  they  have  to  he 
Ilo  climb  so  many  Steppes,  you  see, 

The  Burials  with  Mongols  play 
In  a  country  far  away; 
When  to  their  houses  once  we  came. 
We  saw  the  reason  for  their  name. 

And  now  I  think  that  I  have  done, 
This  lengthy  verse  at  last  is  spun. 
Be  secret,  and  I'll  tell  you  why, — 
My  think-tank  is  completely  dry. 


Sept.  27 


f 


Written  in  great  agony  on  this  the  twenty- 


LETTERS 

seventh  day  of  September,  in  return  for  which 
I  hope  to  get  some  news  in  two  or  three 
months'  time. 

N.  F. 


[TO  HIS  MOTHER] 

Harbin,  Sept.  29 

When  we  arrived  here  yesterday,  and  I  was 
about  to  post  the  other  letter,  we  met  a  man 
who  spoke  like  an  Englishman,  but  who,  we 
now  have  reason  to  believe,  is  in  the  Russian 
Secret  Service,  who  told  me  that  the  letters 
posted  here  never  went.  The  reason  we  be- 
lieve he  is  a  Russian  is  because  when  I  went  to 
the  General  Staff  building,  they  knew  where 
we  were,  and  also  because  no  one  here  knows 
where  or  who  he  could  have  been.  He  told 
me  he  was  the  agent  of  the  "American  Flour 
Company,"  which  does  not  exist.  Then  when 
Straight  was  out  ( I  was  left  sitting  in  a  bare 
room  with  one  bed  and  washstand,  guarding 
the  three  codes  we  have,  because  the  Russian 
police  have  a  way  of  going  through  your  lug- 
gage )  he  found  the  American  consul  had  not 
come,  and  as  two  of  the  codes  were  to  be  left 
here  with  him,  one  for  Vladivostok,  we  de- 
cided to  wait  over  a  day,  and  wired  Vladivos- 
tok (I  mean,  the  consul  there)  that  he  was 
C  84  3 


LETTERS 

to  come  and  get  a  package.  Since  then  we 
have  found  that  the  telegram  was  not  sent,  so 
we  are  off  to-night  on  the  sly,  having  made 
all  sorts  of  engagements  for  to-morrow  with 
Baron  Hoven,  head  of  the  Secret  Service. 

After  Straight  got  back,  at  about  3  p.m., we 
lunched  and  I  went  out,  he  guarding,  to  see  the 
town  and  buy  food,  for,  for  two  or  three  days 
now,  we  shall  be  without  dining-cars,  etc.  The 
Russians  are  good-natured  and  bright,  so  that 
by  the  aid  ofpiftures  and  pointing,!  succeeded 
in  getting  quite  all  we  need.  The  shops  have 
piftures  of  what  they  sell,  outside,  so  I  drove 
till  I  saw  a  grocery  and  stopped,  shopped  and 
returned.  Baron  Hoven  came  to  tea,  and  we 
talked  till  dinner-time.  Straight  knew  him  in 
Tientsin, and  helped  him  escape  the  Japs  when 
they  came  in ;  so  he  is  very  friendly.  For  din- 
ner we  went  to  a  restaurant  called  the  "  Ports- 
mouth," where  we  carried  the  troublesome 
codes  in  Straight's  camera  case,  and  went  hea- 
vily armed,  as  the  town  is  rather  worse  than 
our  frontier  towns  used  to  be.  Then  to  bed, 
one  sheet  only,  and  no  blankets, — and  com- 
panions of  the  hungriest  sort!  To-day  we  saw 
Baron  Hoven,  then  drove  to  the  Military  Town 
and  back  to  lunch.  After  lunch.  Baron  Hoven 
took  us  around,  and  after  he  left  we  did  some 
more  investigating,  and  so  back  to  the  hotel, 
and  here  I  am. 

1185  3 


LETTERS 

Harbin  is  pra6tically  only  four  years  old, 
the  strangest  contrast  of  new  brick  or  stone 
buildings,  wooden  houses  and  dug-outs.  The 
streets  are  awful;  unpaved  and  full  of  holes, 
so  that  it  is  a  very  common  thing  for  the  troj- 
kas  to  break,  two  broke  with  us  to-day.  It  is 
divided  into  the  Old  Town  ( military ) ,  the  Ad- 
ministrative, the  Chinese  (two  of  these),  the 
Manufafturing,  the  Hospital,  and  the  New 
Military,  all  of  which  we  have  seen  on  the 
sly,  though  our  movements  were  well  known, 
as  we  were  followed  everywhere.  It  is  in  the 
middle  of  a  bare  plain,  and  as  nasty  a  place  as 
you  can  imagine.  Our  hotel  is  the  most  re- 
speftable,  a  family  one,  but  it  is  awful.  The 
rooms  are  as  I  have  said,  but  the  dirt  and  smell 
are  quite  beyond  proper  language,  yet  all  the 
officers'  wives  who  have  only  just  come,  must 
live  here.  No  one  speaks  anything  but  Rus- 
sian, so  that  when  we  have  to  make  our  wants 
known, Straight  talks  with  the  Chinese  coolies, 
who  in  turn  translate.  Last  night  at  dinner 
( Baron  Hoven  said  it  was  the  best  place  to  go 
to )  we  were  even  worse  off,  and  had  all  the 
waiters, guests  and  a  spy  ( he  understood  Eng- 
lish, because  though  we  changed  tables  he 
followed  and  hstened,  and  we  saw  him  after 
us  once  or  twice  to-day — but  we  gave  him  a 
merry  dance!)  in  a  crowd  round  us,  and  yet 
we  were  not  able  to  get  one  bit  to  eat.  Not 
C86  3 


LETTERS 

a  Chinaman  was  in  sight,  and  we  were  about 
to  leave  when  they  dragged  up  a  villainous- 
looking  cook  who  spoke  English.  Then  we 
dined  in  peace,  but  at  a  terrific  price,  for  the 
war  prices  are  n't  down  yet.  Everywhere  we 
went  we  saw  the  worst  type  of  people;  in 
fa6l,  at  night  one  walks  in  the  middle  of  the 
street  with  revolver  drawn,  and  the  last  Ame- 
rican here,  a  reporter,  only  14  days  ago,  was 
warned  to  shoot  in  case  of  any  sign  of  trouble. 
I  saw  one  fight,  but  my  driver  was  so  scared 
that  we  turned  and  fled  before  I  could  see 
what  happened.  I  shall  be  very  glad  to  leave 
to-night.  For  a  few  minutes  we  almost  thought 
I  should  have  to  go  to  Vladivostok  alone,  and 
round  that  way,  but  we  decided  instead  to  turn 
the  codes  over  to  the  Minister  at  Peking.  The 
funny  thing  is  that  the  police  want  the  codes, 
and  know  ( at  least  Baron  Hoven  does )  that 
they,  and  not  the  camera,  are  in  the  case.  In 
fa6l,  they  have  done  everything  to  make  us 
leave  it  behind.  I  must  dine,  pack,  and  run 
now,  so  good-bye.  This  will  be  posted  at  Muk- 
den. 

Great  love, 

Neil 


C  87    D 


LETTERS 

[TO  HIS  MOTHER] 

Mukden,  OSi.  3 

Dearest  M--: 

Here  we  are  at  last,  having  got  in  last  night 

just  five  w^eeks  after  our  start. 

When  I  left  off  last,  w^e  were  trying  to  fly 
very  quietly  from  Harbin,  but  no  sooner  did 
we  call  for  our  bill  than  Baron  Hoven  came 
and  kindly  saw  us  off.  Without  him  we  should 
have  been  lost,  as  the  train  was  crowded,  and 
we  found  our  compartment  taken  by  a  China- 
man. With  the  Baron's  help  we  got  another, 
however,  and  went  to  bed.  I  forgot  to  write 
that  before  we  left  the  hotel  an  Englishman 
came  up  and  asked  if  we  were  going  south, 
and  showed  us  maps  with  the  latest  informa- 
tion about  the  R.R.,  as  he  had  that  day  come 
up  from  Mukden !  Of  course  we  were  delight- 
ed to  hear,  especially  as  we  found  there  were 
only  30  miles  to  do  by  cart. 

When  we  waked  up  next  morning  we  found 
ourselves  in  the  last  Russian  post,  where  the 
officers  took  us  at  once  to  the  commanding  of- 
ficer's house.  From  there  we  went  to  the  town 
( Chung-chu-sa )  where  we  found  the  man- 
ager of  the  Bank,  with  whom  we  lunched  af- 
ter having  changed  our  money.  It  was  a  very 
long  lunch,  so  we  did  not  get  off  till  about 
five  o'clock,  when  they  gave  us  a  cart  for  our 
C  88  ] 


LETTERS 

stuff,  horses,  a  Captain  and  four  cossacks, 
with  whom  we  rode  twelve  miles  to  the  first 
Jap  outpost.  Here  we  said  good-bye,  and  went 
to  bed  dinnerless,  for  the  reason  there  was 
nothing  to  be  had.  Then  was  my  first  night 
in  a  Jap  bed  ( or  rather,  on )  with  my  rug  and 
coat  as  covering.  The  room  was  bare,  and 
our  breakfast  nothing  but  tea  and  Albert  bis- 
cuit, which  we  got  thanks  to  the  lone  Rus- 
sian there,  a  telegraph  man.  The  Jap  captain 
gave  us  two  soldiers,  for  this  is  the  worst 
place  for  Hung-Hudsi,  who  are  the  Chinese 
brigands.  Here  started  our  agony,  for  to  ride 
in  a  Chinese  cart  is  like  being  put  in  a  cage 
and  shaken  hard  by  a  giant.  For  ten  hours  we 
were  knocked,  jolted,  beaten  about  in  those 
awful  carts  (we  had  three)  with  no  springs, 
and  roads  like  Virginia.  I  am  sore  all  over  still 
from  it,  every  joint.  You  have  to  sit  on  the 
floor,  and  hold  on  to  the  sides,  as  your  head 
goes  bang  around  the  top  every  time  the  cart 
lurches,  which  is  every  second,  if  you  don't. 
We  stopped  for  lunch  with  some  Japanese  of- 
ficers, and  had  a  very  decent  meal  of  eggs, 
veal  and  beer,  and  then  on  till  8  p.m.,  when 
we  reached  Kung-chu-ling,  worn  out  both 
mentally  and  physically ;  but  were  partially  re- 
vived by  a  very  hot  bath  and  dinner,  after 
which  bed,  and  never  in  my  life  was  I  so  glad 
to  get  there.  Once  only  did  we  see  the  Hung- 

n  89  J 


LETTERS 

Hudsi,  but  they  did  nothing,  as  at  that  time 
we  were  escorted  by  three  Japs,  and  they 
were  only  six;  but  I  was  so  miserable  that  I 
hoped  they  would  do  something.  As  we  were 
late  we  couldn't  get  out  and  walk,  and  the 
carts  were  doing  about  four  miles  an  hour  at 
the  end.  No  more  of  that,  for  it  is  a  nightmare. 

Next  day  we  got  up,  very  sore,  and  went 
to  the  train.  After  waiting  an  hour  it  came  and 
we  started. Then  from  10.30  a.m.  till  1 1  p.  m. 
we  crawled,  in  a  second  class,  with  long  stops 
at  the  stations,  and  not  until  we  got  to  Tie- 
ling  did  we  have  any  excitement.  There  we 
saw  the  soldiers  searching  the  coolies  for  arms, 
as  the  Hung-Hudsi  have  attacked  trains  very 
often.  Also  a  French  Father  got  in  there  and 
talked  to  us  till  we  reached  Mukden.  Our 
meals  were  of  Albert  biscuit  and  sardines,  with 
mineral  water.  The  missionary  had  been  here 
eighteen  years  and  was  going  home.  He  was 
most  interesting,  but  I  was  too  sore  and  tired 
to  take  much  in. 

We  had  telegraphed  to  Mukden,  from 
Kung-chu-ling,  to  a  missionary,  but  when  we 
got  there,  he  had  not  come,  and  we  were  in 
despair,  as  there  were  no  coolies  nor  carts, 
and  the  town  two  miles  off.  Just  then  we 
heard  a  very  good  old  Yankee  twang,  and  our 
one  subje6l  (we  didn't  know  we  had  any) 
came  up  to  see  off  a  friend.  Seldom  have  I 

Cson 


LETTERS 

been  as  glad  to  see  anyone  in  my  life.  He 
had  a  cart,  and  we  put  our  stufFin,  and  walked 
through  the  most  wonderful  harvest  moon- 
light into  Mukden !  It  is  well  policed  by  Chi- 
nese, and  so  we  were  challenged  every  few 
yards.  When  we  came  to  the  gates  we  had  a 
good  deal  of  difficulty  in  getting  in,  but  man- 
aged it,  and  then  wound  our  way  through 
wide,  fairly  well-lighted  streets,  to  the  Jap 
hotel,  where  we  were  soon  fast  asleep.  This 
morning  we  went  to  the  post  office,  but  found 
no  mail,  as  the  only  stuff  that  had  come  was  for 
Straight,  and  sent  back  to  Newchwang.  We 
are  now  waiting  for  orders  from  Peking,  to 
see  whether  we  go  there  to-day  or  not,  and  I 
am  guarding  our  things  while  Straight  is  out 
seeing  about  our  house,  etc.,  and  calling  on 
the  missionaries.  Of  Mukden  I  can  write  no- 
thing yet,  but  the  next  time  I  get  a  chance  I 
shall.  At  present  I  am  listening  to  Japanese 
music  off  in  the  distance,  and  looking  out  into 
our  little  courtyard. 

Do  you  know,  they  tell  us  that,  outside  the 
Russians,  probably  not  more  than  twenty- 
five  men  (or  women  and  men  combined,  ra- 
ther )  have  ever  made  the  trip  we  did !  Some 
day,  when  I  get  more  settled,  I  will  try  to 
write  more  about  it. 

Best  love  to  all, 

Neil 

1:91  ] 


LETTERS 

[  TO  HIS  MOTHER  ] 

Mukden,  OSi,  4 

Dearest  M--: 

I  AM  now  going  to  try  and  tell  you  what  sort 
of  a  place  this  is,  though  I  have  only  seen  a 
little  of  it,  and  the  job  is  quite  beyond  me. 
However,  here  goes. 

In  the  first  place  it  is  in  the  middle  of  a 
large  plain  of  the  most  fertile  charafter, — 
in  fa6l,  one  remembers  the  "  Letters  of  a  Chi- 
nese Official,''  for  everywhere  there  are  neat 
fields  filled  with  their  grain  or  some  other 
garden  truck.  Then  there  are  little  clumps  of 
trees,  where  the  houses  of  the  farmers  are, 
made  of  sun-burned  brick,  and  either  roofed 
with  tiles  or  thatch.  The  roofs  are  not  peaked 
as  the  ones  we  know  in  our  plates,  etc.  ( those 
are  southern),  but  slightly  curved,  with  a  chim- 
ney in  the  centre,  or  a  very  gentle  angle  when 
tiled.  Everything  is  fenced  off( houses,! mean) 
with  either  a  brick  wall  or  a  rush  fence.  Roads 
abound,  only  they  are  simply  awful,  and  so 
filled  with  dust  that  we  wear  automobile  gog- 
gles always.  The  town  itself  is  square,  with 
walls  about  a  mile  long  each  way,  and  forty 
or  fifty  feet  high,  with  battlements.  Each  gate 
has  a  pagoda-like  top  or  watch-tower  over  it, 
and  an  outer  wall  in  front.  Inside  the  walls  the 
streets  run  every  which  way,  lined  on  all  sides 

C90 


LETTERS 

by  either  houses  right  on  the  road,  or  by  walls 
of  the  various  yamens  or  enclosed  houses  with 
four  or  five  courtyards,  surrounded  by  little 
three  or  four  room  houses  more  or  less  like 
this.  (I  enclose  the  plan — more  or  less — of 
our  hotel;  our  rooms  are  marked  x  x.  It  is  a 
Chinese  place,  we  moved  from  the  other  yes- 
terday. ) 

The  houses  on  the  street  are  shops  for  the 
most  part,  with  all  sorts  of  gay-coloured  things , 
and  they  have  posts,  tall  red  things,  with  gilt 
dragons,  etc.,  all  over  them,  sticking  out  over 
the  street.  Also  the  doorways  and  entrances 
are  covered  with  carvings,  so  that  the  dull  gray 
of  the  houses  is  very  much  relieved  and  en- 
livened. There  are  no  sidewalks, so  every  body 
and  thing  mixes  up  in  the  street;  men,  carts, 
'rickshaws,  horses,  etc.,  all  kicking  up  a  cloud 
of  very  fine  gray  dust  which  penetrates  every- 
thing. Hawkers  run  about  with  their  wares 
slung  on  long  poles,  either  in  baskets  or  just 
tied  on, calling  out  shrill  cries.  Infa6l,you  can- 
not imagine  a  gayer  or  brighter  scene.  Above 
it  all  is  the  glorious  blue  sky  of  Manchuria,  like 
our  September  skies.  Once  inside  the  courts, 
and  you  find  a  little  garden  (for  the  most 
part  withered  now,  for  we  have  ice  at  night), 
no  dust,  and  quiet,  with  a  few  boys  wander- 
ing around  on  their  business.  That  is  the  sort 
of  place  we  are  trying  to  find ;  or  a  temple, 
C  93  3 


LETTERS 

preferably.  The  Chinese  are  mostly  in  blue, 
with  sleeveless  jackets,  but  here  and  there  in 
the  crowd,  either  red  or  green  show  up.  Their 
working  dress  is  cotton,  but  silk  is  seen 
everywhere,  and  the  house-boys  all  have  silk 
as  well  as  cotton  clothes.  The  women  do  not 
bind  their  feet  here,  but  do  paint  very  much 
and  wear  their  hair  in  a  very  curious  man- 
ner on  the  top  of  their  head,  more  or  less  like 

^^^^Nlilfe^^^LJ^^^^'^  imitation  flowers  and 
bright  things  stuck  in  them,  and  no  hats. 
Another  common  sight  in  the  streets  is  China- 
men on  bicycles,  which  they  love.  In  the  city 
the  houses  are  all  tiled  and  have  roofs  at  quite 
an  angle  with  little  clay  images  of  dogs  along 
the  roof-beams  to  keep  away  the  devils,  and 
at  the  joint  at  the  peak  are  dragons  or  sich. 
We  also  have  a  trolley  line,  about  the  size  of  a 
blanket-box  on  wheels,  with  seats  for  four  in  it. 
It  runs  on  little  tracks  of  about  two  feet  gauge, 
and  is  shoved  along  by  a  coolie.  It  seems  very 
popular,  and  people  even  stand  in  it.  When 
they  come  to  a  down  grade  the  coolie  jumps 
up  and  sits  on  the  roof!  Mukden  is  in  the 
throes  of  repairing  the  streets,  so  there  is  more 
confusion  now  than  usual,  but  everyone  is  too 
good-natured  to  care,  and  all  go  along  smil- 
ing and  singing  to  themselves.  The  children 
are  bully ;  bright  round-faced  and  round-eyed 

C   94  ] 


LETTERS 

little  bunches  of  colour,  with  about  as  many 
little  pig-tails  as  our  little  negroes,  only  they 
are  all  very  neatly  tied  up  with  pink  riband. 
Sometime,  when  I  get  more  used  to  it,  and 
more  nervy,  I  shall  be  able  to  send  piftures 
of  both  the  women's  head-dress  and  the  chil- 
dren, and  in  fa6l  of  everything  there  is. 

Outside  of  the  city  there  is  another  wall, 
which  surrounds  the  first  and  encloses  a  kind 
of  suburb  made  by  the  overflow.  This  looks 
much  the  same  as  the  city  proper,  but  less  fine. 
Beyond  this  wall,  and  on  the  road  to  the  sta- 
tion, are  the  temples  and  the  newer  suburbs 
still,  which  are  chiefly  Jap  shanties,  very  thinly 
made, so  that  both  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Fulton  (the 
Irish  missionary )  say  they  don't  see  how  they 
can  stand  the  cold  winter.  Out  here,  in  one  of 
the  temples,  is  the  place  where  we  are  trying 
to  get  our  houses  and  office.  The  temples  are 
surrounded  by  walls  of  course,  and  are  much 
like  the  other  yamens,  only  more  decorated, 
and  very  gay,  with  the  Lamas  running  around 
in  their  yellow  jackets  and  shaved  heads.  Of 
the  ones  I  have  seen,  except  for  one  or  two 
great  porcelain  dogs  on  pedestals  outside  the 
outer  gate,  there  are  no  images  to  be  seen, 
for  they  keep  them  in  the  attic,  and  so  far  as 
I  know,  only  the  priests  look  at  them.  Mr. 
Fulton  and  I  went  this  afternoon  to  look  at 
some  of  the  buildings  in  one,  and  had  tea  with 
^95  3 


LETTERS 

the  head  Lama,  a  very  jolly  old  man  in  great 
horn  spe6lacles,  who  told  us  he  would  rent 
us  some  three  buildings  if  we  wanted.  That 
sounds  very  large,  but  as  each  only  has  two 
rooms  and  a  hall,  and  we  are  three  ( Arnell  is 
on  his  way)  and  need  the  office  as  well,  it 
is  n't  much.  The  idea  of  living  there,  cheek  by 
jowl  with  a  crowd  of  Lamas  is  fine,  especially 
as  we  may  get  to  be  such  very  good  friends 
that  they  will  teach  us  their  lore.  Also  their 
park  is  quite  the  finest  I  have  yet  seen,  and 
even  if  we  cannot  have  that  it  will  be  a  plea- 
sure to  look  at  it  always.  It  was  rather  funny 
to  be  dickering  over  prices  with  the  priests. 
We  haven't  taken  it  yet,  because  Straight  has 
developed  a  fever,  and  his  temperature  jumps 
to  103  every  night,  so  I  have  been  keeping 
him  in  bed.  The  doftor  has  seen  him  and  says 
it's  nothing  but  his  being  over-tired.  To-mor- 
row he  is  going,  and  I  hope  we  shall  start 
repairs  on  the  place  next  day.  His  fever  is  ra- 
ther awkward,  because  it  means  that  I  shall 
have  to  go  to  Peking  alone  for  stores  and 
orders,  etc.,  and  no  one  speaks  anything  but 
Chinese  on  the  road,  except  for  the  first  few 
hours,  when  Japanese  is  spoken.  However,  I 
guess  I  can  do  it,  by  aid  of  the  various  Ameri- 
cans at  Newchwang  and  Tientsin  and  the  like, 
who  would  put  me  on  the  train  at  each  place. 

We  changed  hotels  for  many  reasons 

I  96-] 


LETTERS 

The  chara6ler  of  the  first  inn  was  very  bad, 
though  it  is  the  only  Japanese  hotel  here,  and 
by  far  the  best  known  in  Mukden ;  all  foreign- 
ers stay  there.  Also  now  we  have  two  rooms 
and  meals  for  just  half  what  we  had  to  pay  be- 
fore, for  one  room  without  meals.  And  again, 
the  Chinese  servants  are  much  more  attentive ; 
we  have  a  special  boy  to  look  after  us,  and 
two  small  things  called  "learn  pidgins"  who 
are  learning  to  be  house-boys,  and  who  just 
pursue  us  all  the  time,  to  do  errands  or  brush 
clothes  or  clean  up.  In  fa6l,  it  is  just  as  though 
we  were  staying  our  last  night  in  an  English 
house,  and  the  servants  were  trying  to  insure 
a  larger  tip.  Our  two  rooms  are  not  very  large, 
nor  what  people  at  home  would  call  furnished, 
being  merely  fixed  with  a  table  each  and  two 
chairs,  but  no  bed.  We  sleep  on  mats  on  a  sort 
of  dais  at  one  end,calleda"  khan,''and  strange 
to  say, are  very  comfortable,  having  borrowed 
sheets  from  the  do6lor  ( a  Scotch  missionary 
named  Christie).  To-day,  also,  they  put  in  a 
stove  to  keep  Straight  warm  as  the  change  in 
the  evenings  is  very  great  indeed.  By  the  way, 
in  the  last  letter  I  spelt  the  name  of  the  Chi- 
nese bandits  in  a  way  entirely  of  my  own,  and 
quite  fantastic,  as  usual ;  they  are  "  Hung-hu- 
tsa."  In  time  I  may  learn. ...  So  good-bye. 

Love  to  all, 

Neil 
Z97-2 


LETTERS 

[FROM  A  LETTER  TO  HIS  BROTHER] 

Mukden,  O^.  $t/> 

Dear  C— : 

A  GOOD  many  times  on  my  way  out  I  thought 
of  you, for  with  your  love  for  the  West  I  think 
you  would  be  quite  crazy  about  Russia,  or  ra- 
ther, Siberia.  It  is  the  most  wonderful  grain 
country  I  have  ever  seen, — so  wonderful  that 
with  their  poor  tools  and  worse  methods  they 
get  more  than  they  can  use  there.  It  is  a  won- 
derful chance  for  modern  farm-machinery 
men, and  if  any  one  would  put  up  a  grain  ele- 
vator they  would  be  bound  to  make  money. 
Around  Harbin,  where  there  are  quite  a  num- 
ber of  flour  mills,  grain  is  so  cheap  that  wheat 
costs,  delivered  at  the  mill, 40  kopeks  per  pud, 
or  about  20  cents  for  more  than  a  bushel! 
They  showed  us  flour  at  from  1  rouble  80 
kopeks,  down  to  1  rouble  4o,per  pud,  which 
looked  almost  as  good  as  our  best.  Of  course 
the  Russians  put  an  awful  lot  of  restriftions 
in  the  way  of  the  foreigner,but  even  with  that, 
the  country  has  got  a  wonderful  future.  If  any- 
one tells  you  Russia  is  going  bankrupt,  don't 
believe  him.  The  peasants  are  poor,  but  they 
have  barely  scratched  the  surface  of  their 
wealth;  what  with  minerals,  coal,  forests,  graz- 
ing lands  and,  above  all,  wheat,  they  have 
far  greater  resources  than  we,  for  the  land  is 

Cos  n 


LETTERS 

about  the  same,but  the  size,  tremendous.  The 
revolution  I  don't  think  means  much,  and  I 
have  talked  w^ith  all  sorts,  all  along  the  w^ay. 
Of  course  in  our  papers  it  looks  pretty  bad, 
for  they  colleft  news  from  all  the  different 
provinces,  thousands  of  miles  apart,  and  make 
one  column  of  it.  We  were  in  Moscow  when 
they  hanged  two  revolutionists,  and  aside  from 
the  fa6l  that  the  police  are  all  armed  with 
rifles  and  bayonets,  there  was  absolutely  no 
disturbance  to  be  seen,  and  Moscow  is  one 
of  the  hotbeds.  The  troops  are  faithful  to  the 
Government,  having  only  one  desire :  to  re- 
new the  war  with  Japan,  which  they  tell  you 
openly,  but  still,  it  is  better  not  to  talk  too 
freely.  Manchuria  is  another  wonderfully  rich 
country,  and  here  they  have  developed  farm- 
ing much  more  than  in  Russia,  but  hardly 
touched  their  coal  and  gold  supplies.  In  both 
places  American  machinery  and  canned  stuffs, 
camp-beds, oil,  filters  (the  water  is  all  bad), 
fly-paper,  cutlery,  cotton  goods,  in  fa6l  almost 
everything  is  in  demand,  and  if  the  countries 
were  properly  canvassed,  a  great  deal  more 
could  be  sold. 

The  Chinese  and  Russians  both  are  agri- 
culturalists, and  hard-working,  very  decent 
people,  in  whom  one  cannot  help  beheving 
very  much.  The  fa6l  is,  the  countries  are  too 
rich  to  fail,  and  when  they  have  better  methods 

C99:] 


LETTERS 

they  will  be  able  to  do  wonders.  China  is  wak- 
ing up  for  sure,  and  you  see  decent  police, 
well-drilled  soldiers  in  modern  uniforms,  and 
an  air  of  general  prosperity  everywhere.  .  .  . 
The  German  consul  alone  got  here  before 
us;  we  made  the  trip  in  just  five  weeks  from 
New  York,  having  stopped  ten  days,  all  told, 
en  route.  The  train  was  good  to  Irkutsk, 
excellent  to  Harbin  (a  town  like  our  old 
frontier  towns,  by  the  way,  very  tough  and 
disorderly,  everyone  goes  armed ) ,  but  from 
there,  we  were  pretty  uncomfortable.  Sixteen 
miles  by  horse,  thirty  miles  by  Chinese  cart 
(a  special  sort  of  Hell) and  then  14  hours  by 
a  rotten  little  3  ft.  6  gauge  Jap  road.  Now  we 
are  stopping  at  a  Chinese  inn,  till  we  get  a 
chance  to  get  our  permanent  quarters,  which 
seem  very  hard  to  find.  When  I  have  more 
time,  and  get  some  pi6lures  developed  and 
printed  I  am  going  to  send  them  home,  and 
then  you  can  see  what  Mukden  looks  like. 
Love  to  M — ,  and  regards  to  E.  F.  C,  Mr. 
L.,  Mr.  T.  and  the  L— s. 

As  ever, 

Neil 


C  100  ;] 


LETTERS 

[TO  HIS  FATHER] 

Mukden,  Oa.  ^th 

Dear  P— : 

At  last  we  are  here  in  Mukden ;  very  far  from 
settled,  but  still,  not  on  the  jump  every  day. 
Our  quarters  are  very  primitive,  but  after  the 
long  time  in  the  train,  they  seem  like  luxury. 
Just  now  we  have  two  rooms,  about  8  by  12, 
one  table  and  two  chairs.  Our  beds  consist  of 
mats  on  a  raised  place  at  one  end,  with  another 
mat  for  covering.  Thanks  to  one  of  the  mis- 
sionaries we  have  sheets  ( a  thing  we  did  n't 
have  for  a  week  after  we  left  the  train ) ,  but 
our  pillows  are  the  ordinary  Chinese  ones,  and 
very  hard.  If  you  don't  know  what  they  look 
like,  imagine  a  thing  about  as  big  and  hard  as 
a  brick,  made  out  of  china. 

Of  course  there  are  only  very  few  foreigners 
here,  not  over  a  dozen  all  told,  but  so  far,  five 
have  passed  through,  so  we  expeft  to  have 
quite  a  number  during  the  year.  Of  course  they 
are  all  people  who  have  been  in  China  always, 
no  traveller  ever  gets  here  at  this  season.  Of 
the  residents  I  have  only  met  four :  Mr.  Ful- 
ton, a  very  nice  Irish  missionary ;  Dr.  Christie, 
a  Scotch  one,  also  very  nice,  who  took  care  of 
Straight  who  was  laid  up  with  malaria  for  a 
few  days ;  a  man  named  Brown  ( you  see  we 
have  even  that  name  here),  who  represents 

C  101  -2 


LETTERS 

some  tobacco  company;  and  our  one  subje6t, 
named  Farnum,  who  came  out  as  a  private 
soldier  during  the  Boxer  trouble.  They  are  all 
very  busy,  so  we  have  n't  seen  much  of  them 
except  Mr.  Fulton,  who  has  been  helping  us 
look  up  houses.  That  is  worse  than  it  used  to 
be  in  New  York, for  the  Chinese  don't  want  us 
in  the  city  itself. ...  I  have  found  a  very  fine 
temple  for  us,  and  just  now  we  are  pulling 

strings  to  get  it Whether  or  no  we  succeed 

I  cannot  say,  but  I  think  we  may.  It  is  quite 
small,  two  courtyards  only,  and  three  houses 
of  3  and  4  rooms  each.  You  have  no  idea  how 
funny  it  is  to  see  Lama  priests  only  ten  years 
old  sitting  up  and  receiving  you.  I  made  quite 
good  friends  with  one  of  them,  by  patting  his 
dog.  He  disappeared  for  a  minute  and  then 
reappeared  with  a  puppy  in  his  arms,  which  he 
wanted  to  give  me, but  I  explained  that  though 
he  was  very  kind  I  had  no  place  to  keep 
one  now.  Then,  of  course,  we  drank  tea;  you 
do  that  everywhere  at  any  time;  in  shops,  in 
houses,  whenever  any  Oriental  comes  to  call 
you  give  it  them.  This  morning  we  started  at 
9  o'clock,  when  we  were  interviewed  by  a 
reporter,  and  have  kept  it  up  till  now,  in  the 
evening,  and  such  bad  tea!  I  suppose  it's  like 
shoes  in  Lynn,  they  send  the  best  away. 

Diplomatically,  everything  is  waiting  till 
April,  when  the  Japs  have  to  go,  but  we  al- 
[  102  ] 


LETTERS 

ready  have  two  consular  cases  on,  with  no 
typewriter  or  paper  to  report  with.  Also  we 
are  very  busy  with  our  reports  on  the  trip  and 
conditions,  which  we  must  hurry  in.  The  day 
passes  so  quickly  we  haven't  seen  the  town 
yet,  nor  have  I  taken  a  pi6lure!  We  came  out 
so  fast  we  have  beaten  the  mail,  and  so,  not 
having  got  any  papers,  we  have  n't  got  any 
idea  what  has  happened.  Regards  to  all  the 

°ffi^^-  Much  love, 

Neil 

[to  his  sister] 

Mukden,  OSi.  9 

Dear  S— : 

Woe  is  me,  there  are  no  pifture  post-cards 
here,  so  until  I  get  on  to  Tientsin  or  Peking 
I  cannot  get  any  for  Gam,  but  please  tell  her 
not  to  care,  as  some  day  I  shall  find  some  of 
China.  We  are  still  here  in  our  Chinese  hotel. 
Straight  all  right  again,  searching  in  vain  for 
a  house.  Those  clever  little  people,  the  Japs, 
have  occupied  everything  available  by  the 
simple  process  of  taking  it,  and  as  they  pay  no 
rent  it  is  very  hard  to  get  them  out.  However, 
Straight  has  seen  the  Viceroy  and  told  him  we 
must  have  a  temple,  and  we  went  to  see  the 
Japanese  Consul-General  ( an  old  friend  of 
Straight's)  and  told  him  the  same.  The  tem- 

C  103  ^ 


LETTERS 

pie  is  occupied  by  some  tailors  now,  so  we 
have  hopes.  Also,  Arnell  has  not  turned  up, 
though  we  expeft  him  daily,  but  that  does  n't 
matter  so  much,  and  I  think  we  leave  to-mor- 
row for  supplies, — you  can  see  by  this  paper 
we  need  them! — and  I  shall  probably  go  on 
to  Peking  alone.  I  have  a  ''boy''  now,  aged 
about  40,  who  is  a  veritable  rascal,  but  as  he 
is  the  only  available  one  here  who  speaks 
English,  I  had  to  take  him  for  a  month.  Inci- 
dentally he  cuts  hair,  and  mine  is  over  my 
shoulders  now.  Still,  when  we  get  settled,  if 
we  ever  do,  I  shall  probably  get  another  who 
is  more  to  be  trusted.  Everyone  is  a  robber 
here,  and  if  it  were  not  for  Mr.  Fulton  I  think 
we  should  be  overcharged  about  100  per  cent 
every  time.  He,  thank  our  stars,  has  lived  here 
over  twenty  years  and  knows  prices  and  all 
that,  which  he  tells  us  before  we  do  anything. 
As  yetwe  have  made  no  official  visits, — they 
begin,  I  think,  to-morrow, — but  I  have  drunk 
more  bad  ceremonial  tea  than  I  have  ever  had 
before.  To-day  we  were  interviewed  by  a  re- 
porter from  a  Jap  paper,  in  English,  so  he  got 
nothing  from  us.  Of  course  they  all  want  to 
to  know  about  the  Russian  troops,  but  we  are 
very  blind  except  in  our  reports  to  Washing- 
ton. I  am  deep  in  a  report  on  the  trip,  chiefly 
a  sort  of  guide-book,  but  at  the  same  time  a 
commercial  one,  which  is  very  hard,  as  we  can 

C  104  n 


LETTERS 

have  no  more  idea  than  of  the  land  the  R.  R, 
passes  through. 

No  mail  from  home  yet,  though  a  large 
stack  of  official  matter  came  on  Saturday, 
dated  from  December  last !  Some  of  the  re- 
plies will  be  rather  late,  I  fancy.  .  .  .  Then 
again  we  are  handicapped  till  we  get  supplies, 
as  this  paper  won't  do. 

Mukden,  as  far  as  I  have  seen  it,  is  per- 
fe6lly  bully,  though  dustier  than  New  York. 
The  people  are  very  friendly,  and  the  small 
children  and  I  get  on  splendidly  by  smiles. 
We  cause  a  good  deal  of  staring,  but  none 
of  an  unpleasant  kind.  Etiquette  is  too  com- 
plicated for  words,  it  seems  to  take  years  to 
learn  properly.  Now  I  must  copy  some  letters 

for  Straight.  .. 

Love,  ^^^^ 


[TO  HIS  MOTHER] 

Mukden,  0^.  ii 

Dearest  M--: 

To-day  and  yesterday  were  both  very  ac- 
tive ones,  as  our  first  official  visit  to  the  Vice- 
roy took  place  at  9,  yesterday  morning.  We 
went  in  state,  each  of  us  dressed  in  frock  coat 
and  top  hat  ( they  are  the  only  two  in  Muk- 
den, by  the  way),  riding  in  two  carts,  pre- 
ceded and  followed  by  our  boys  in  official 

C  105  ] 


LETTERS 

hats,  the  top  part  being  covered  with  red  tas- 
sels, while  the  button  is  black.  The  Vice- 
roy received  us  in  a  large  "foreign''  room, 
filled  with  knick-knacks  from  every  place  but 
China.  We  all  sat  at  a  round  table  and  talked 
of  everything  ( an  interpreter  forme )  for  about 
twenty  minutes,  when  a  very  sweet  cham- 
pagne was  brought  in.  After  we  had  swal- 
lowed one  glass  as  best  we  could,  we  left. 
This  morning  he  called  on  us  at  the  same 
hour,  and  a  mighty  important  thing  it  was  for 
the  inn.  We  borrowed  the  best  room  from  our 
host,  and  sat  in  very  uncomfortable  state, talk- 
ing, for  about  three  quarters  of  an  hour.  Our 
poor  host  trembled  so  when  he  passed  tea 
that  I  was  afraid  he  would  spill  it, — but  just 
fancy  entertaining  in  your  own  house,  for  the 
first  time,  a  man  who  has  absolute  power  of 
life  and  death  over  you !  Again  bad  champagne 
closed  the  call,  and  then  I  fled  cityward  to 
look  for  houses,  as  we  have  been  commanded 
by  Mr.  Rockhill  to  get  one  inside  the  city,  a 
secret  as  yet.  We  must  have  made  a  hit  with 
the  Viceroy,  because  we  were  asked  to  dine 
there  to-night,  which  we  did.  Again  we  went 
in  great  state,  but  no  comfort,  dressed  in  our 
best.  The  hour  was  six  p.m.  When  we  got 
there  we  found  Mr.  Oliver  as  well  as  the  Vice- 
roy, the  Tao  Tai  and  the  interpreter.  After  a 
little  tea,  we  sat  down  to  a  "European"  din- 


LETTERS 

ner.  First  came  shark 's-fin  soup,  and  very 
good  it  was,  then  fish,  then  pheasant,  aspara- 
gus, sausage,  pate  ( the  Lord  knows  of  what ) , 
then  bread  and  butter.  All  butter  is  tinned  out 
here,  so  it  was  more  of  a  luxury  than  it  seems. 
Then  liver,  roast  apples,  and  finally  dessert, 
of  pineapples  and  other  fruits.  Afterwards 
coffee,  then  tea  and  pretty  speeches  and  home. 
To  drink,  we  had  first  port,  then  white  wine, 
then  beer,  then  champagne,  and  green  minthe 
to  finish  up  with !  It  was  all  very  queer,  as  it 
sounds,  but  a  very  pleasant  dinner.  The  Chi- 
nese love  flattery,  and  really  I  blushed  at  the 
way  we  laid  it  on.  Talk  of  a  trowel — why,  we 
laid  it  on  with  a  shovel  apiece. 

We  have  called  on  Hujiwara,  the  Japanese 
consul  also.  .  .  .  Now  he  is  helping  us  over  a 
temple  outside  the  city,  while  we  are  working 
like  mad,  but  very  secretly,  for  a  place  inside. 
To-night  we  leave  at  midnight  for  New- 
chwang.  There  I  leave  Straight  and  fly  to  Pe- 
king and  back,  while  Straight  does  some  work 
and  returns  here.  Arnell  has  not  turned  up 
yet,  though  he  was  due  two  days  ago.  What 
with  him  and  our  letters  not  coming,  we  are 
mad  as  the  dickens.  Now  I  suppose  my  mail 
will  come  in  those  ten  days  when  I  am  away ! 

Straight  is  calling  me,  so  good-bye. 

Love, 
Neil 

C  107  ] 


LETTERS 

[  TO  HIS  MOTHER  ] 

Shan-Han- KwAN,  OSi.  13 

Dearest  M--: 

I  AM  now  just  inside  the  Great  Wall  which  I 
saw  first  a  few  minutes  ago,  with  the  sun 
sinking  behind  it.  Here  I  stop  for  the  night, 
for  trains  don't  run  at  night  here,  and  I  find 
myself  in  a  very  large  comfortable  hotel,  built 
rather  like  our  summer  ones,  and  run  by 
English  people. 

When  I  last  wrote,  we  were  just  off  for 
Newchwang.  After  a  horrible  trip  we  got 
there  at  about  9  next  morning ;  or  rather  we 
got  to  the  station,  and  then  went  on  one  of 
those  absurd  little  so-called  "trolleys"  to  the 
city.  It  was  really  nothing  but  a  truck  with  a 
dos-a-dos  bench  on  it,  and  run  by  a  coolie 
pushing  it.  .  .  .  At  length  we  arrived  at  what 
seemed  a  very  large  town,  and  it  a6lually  has 
150  Europeans  in  it!  We  went  at  once  to  the 
"  Manchuria  House,''  and  after  breakfast  sal- 
lied out  to  see  people.  The  town  is  nothing 
in  itself.  Also  we  got  hair-cuts,  and  new,  very 
dressy,  felt  hats,  for  respeftability.  Then  we 
met  people:  the  Customs,  the  British  and  Ger- 
man Consuls  (both  of  whom  come  to  Muk- 
den in  a  few  days  for  good ),  merchants,  mis- 
sionaries, doftors,  and  above  all,  wives!  We 
lunched  with  some  Americans  called  R.  T. 


LETTERS 

( very  nice  these  were ) ,  then  went  to  our  Con- 
sulate to  read  up  the  correspondence  concern- 
ing the  opening  of  Manchuria,  etc.  ( our  con- 
sul is  away  on  leave ) ,  which  took  us  till  5  p.  m. 
Then  to  tea  with  the  Customs — a  Harvard 
man,  named  Clark — and  after  that  to  make 
formal  calls  until  7,  on  all  the  officials.  Then 
we  went  to  the  Club!  and  talked  a  minute  or 
two,  until  we  had  to  dress  to  dine  with  the 
R.  T.'s.  Mr.  Fulford,  the  British  Consul,  is  an 
old  man,  but  seems  very  nice;  he  came  as  far 
as  the  first  junftion  with  me  to-day ,  which  was 
nice,  as  Straight  is  still  in  Newchwang — and 
at  the  station  I  met  his  Vice,  who  is  young  and 
very  pleasant ;  so  we  shall  have  nice  compan- 
ions in  Mukden ;  I  met  also  Mr.  Mezger,  the 
German  Consul,  who  is  young  and  pleasant 
too.  Dinner  over,  we  went  to  work  till  12, 
then  I  slept,  and  started  this  morning  at  7. 
The  trip  was  comfortable  and  interesting.  In 
the  first  place  it  was  my  first  glimpse  of  China 
proper.  Everywhere  it  is  cultivated,  except  a 
lot  of  things  I  first  thought  were  haystacks 
(very  small),  but  which  turned  out  to  be 
graves.  At  every  station  were  well-drilled  sol- 
diers, who  stood  at  attention  while  the  train 
was  in.  Crowds  of  hotel  runners  came  to  meet 
the  train,  each  with  the  name  of  their  hotel 
marked  in  Chinese  on  a  little  flag,  and  as  soon 
as  the  Chinese  passengers  got  oft',  they  set  up 
L  109  ] 


LETTERS 

a  shout  for  all  the  world  like  a  football  field 
when  the  teams  appear. 

The  day  was  soft  in  colour,  and  to  look  over 
the  large  flat  plain  to  the  pale  blue  hills  beyond 
was  delightful.  The  hills  were  just  what  they 
ought  always  to  be:  a  jumble  of  irregular 
peaks  rising  sheer  out  of  a  perfeftly  flat  plain. 
Here  and  there  on  them  were  watch-towers 
showing  black  against  the  sky.  Once  in  awhile 
we  would  pass  an  old  walled  town,  with  its  pa- 
goda-gates and  temples.  Everywhere  the  land 
was  teeming  with  life ;  little  blue  Chinese  work- 
ing, children  playing,  cattle,  dogs,  pigs  and 
so  on.  Storks  also  were  flying  over  the  towns 
in  numbers.  Really,  I  did  n't  wonder  the  Chi- 
nese want  their  country  for  themselves,  and 
hate  having  foreigners  butting  in  and  putting 
up  railroads  and  telegraphs.  It  is  all  like  the 
"Letters  of  a  Chinese  Official,"  except  that 
Lowes  Dickinson  omitted  the  dirt.  Why  they 
leave  it  and  become  Westerners  I  can't  see. 
Mukden  is,of  course,  wilder,  but  yet  I  have  n't 
seen  such  a  pifturesque  place.  Mr.  Fulford 
and  I  are  planning  trips  as  soon  as  we  get  set- 
tled— I  mean,  short  ones,  exploring  the  city 
and  tombs.  As  I  said,  the  sun  was  sinking 
when  we  reached  the  Wall,  and  the  great  gray 
thing  stretched  miles  in  each  direftion,  like  a 
sort  of  rampart,  with  its  little  watch-towers 
here  and  there.  It  is  not  in  very  good  condi- 
C  no] 


LETTERS 

tion,  I  saw,  when  we  got  nearer,  but  it  only 
adds  to  the  sight.  For  a  while  I  wondered  how 
we  could  get  through,  and  imagine  my  dis- 
may when  we  suddenly  passed  through  a 
great  breach  made  for  the  purpose !  It  seemed 
like  sacrilege,  almost,  to  break  a  thing  as  old 
as  it  is,  yet  it  had  to  be  done  I  suppose — or  I 
never  should  have  been  able  to  get  to  Peking. 
By  the  way,  the  real  reason  I  am  ordered 
there  is  to  deliver  those  two  troublesome  codes 
which  gave  us  so  much  difficulty  in  Harbin. 
Tient-Tsin,  where  I  stop  to-morrow,  is  hke 
Shanghai,  and  only  3  hours  from  Peking.  It 
is  full  of  foreigners,  to  a  lot  of  whom  I  have 
letters,  so  my  day  will  be  pleasant  as  well  as 
busy.  My  "boy ''is  with  me;  really,  for  $7.50 
a  month  to  get  an  English-speaking  boy  who 
does  everything  for  one  seems  very  reason- 
able. Where  he  sleeps  or  what  he  eats  I  don't 
know — I  mean,  he  is  within  hearing  every 
time  I  want  him. 
Now  for  dinner,  then  to  work  at  my  report 

till  bed. 

Love,  ^^^^ 


[  TO  HIS  MOTHER  ] 

Peking,  China,  0^.  14. 

Dearest  M--: 

...  At  last  I  am  here,  staying  inside  the  walls, 

C  111  ] 


LETTERS 

with  Mr.  John  Coolidge.  There  is  a  Japanese 
Prince  here,  who  has  taken  all  the  rooms  at  all 
the  hotels,  so  when  I  arrived  late  last  evening, 
I  had  no  place  to  go.  At  first  they  thought  they 
might  be  able  to  put  me  in  the  barber  shop,but 
found  even  that  full,  so  I  applied  to  Mr.  Rock- 
hill,  as  Billy  P.  was  away  at  the  moment 
(he  got  back  later).  Mr.  Rockhill  had  no- 
thing to  suggest ;  so  I  went  and  dined,  having 
burst  into  an  American's  room  to  wash.  He 
turned  out  to  be  one  I  had  slightly  known  in 
New  York,  an  old  Harvard  man  of  '94.  So  we 
dined  together.  In  the  middle,  Mr.  Coolidge 
came  in,  and  told  me  he  had  a  bed  for  me,  so 
now  I  am  ensconced  in  a  little  house  in  his 
compound,  living  like  a  prince.  This  morning 
I  called  on  Mr.  Rockhill  with  despatches,  and 
got  rid  of  those  bothersome  codes,  and  then 
went  for  lunch  with  the  P — s.  You  cannot  ima- 
gine how  pleasant  it  was  to  have  three  nice 
American  girls  to  talk  to — they  have  a  Miss 
H.  staying  with  them. 

As  usual  I  have  seen  nothing  of  the  city, 
except  for  a  minute's  walk  on  the  walls,  and 
a  'rickshaw  drive  to  the  A.  P.  man's  house — 
a  man  Straight  had  known,  and  as  he  is  go- 
ing home,  we  want  to  get  some  of  his  stuff. 
That  drive  brought  me  near  the  Forbidden 
City.  From  the  outside,  the  place  looks  like 
an  enlarged  Mukden  ( that  is,  the  whole  town 

C  112  2 


LETTERS 

does),  a  square,  walled  town  with  its  many 
gates,  only  all  the  colour  and  decorations  are 
more  vivid.  The  Forbidden  City  is  surrounded 
by  a  red  wall  and  all  the  roofs  are  dull  bronze- 
gold,  very  beautiful  indeed.  To-day  is  rather 
cloudy,  so  the  country  was  hidden  more  or 
less,  but  with  the  sun  it  must  be  dazzling.  It 
cannot  be  described — we  were  talking  about  it 
at  lunch,  and  I  found  they  were  in  the  same 
dilemma  I  am,  wanting  to  tell  about  it,  and 
quite  unable.  Post-cards,  which  I  will  send 
Gam,  give  more  or  less  of  an  idea.  I  want  to 
get  Mr.  Coolidge  to  take  me  round  to-morrow, 
and  then  I  go  to  Tien-Tsin  ( I  came  straight 
through  this  time)  and  back  to  our  Chinese  Inn. 

Mr.  Rockhill  has  ordered  us  to  get  a  place 
inside  the  city,  which  is  well-nigh  impossible, 
so  good-bye  to  our  temple ;  I  suppose  we  shall 

live  in  some  small  dirty  compound Mr. 

Rockhill  has  been  very  kind.  Really,  I  wish  I 
could  be  here  a  week  at  least,  but  I  simply 
have  to  get  my  report  off,  and  help  Straight 
at  Mukden. 

It  is  funny  how  natural  it  all  seems.  To 
walk  along  a  Chinese  road  seems  the  thing  I 
have  always  done — and  so  pleasant!  I  think 
it  has  been  the  best  thing  I  have  ever  done — 
and  things  look  very  bright.  Now  I  am  going 
to  explore.  Best  love, 

Neil 
[   113  ] 


LETTERS 

[FROM  A  LETTER  TO  H.  N.] 

Peking,  China,  OSi.  i6 

Dear  Old  H — : 

Mukden  is  a  pretty  place.  It  has  four  walls, 
eight  gates,  twelve  Europeans,  seven  million 
two  hundred  and  forty-two  thousand  Chinese, 
three  hundred  and  ninety-six  thousand  eight 
hundred  and  twenty-three  and  a  half  Japs. 
Houses  there  are  none ;  at  least,  in  the  ten 
days  I  was  there  we  could  n't  find  any,  and 
lived  at  a  Chinese  Inn,  where  I  left  Straight 
while  I  went  on  to  this  village  to  rubber. 

Like  burglars  we  arrived  in  the  dead  of 
night,  quite  dead  ourselves,  and  sneaked  into 
the  old  town  upon  whose  astonished  gaze  the 
American  Consul-General  and  self  burst  the 
next  day.  Great  ceremonies,  much  tea  con- 
sumed and  such  a  wealth  of  compliments  were 
exchanged  as  never  yet  have  been  imagined. 
Each  morning  from  8-9  we  are  interviewed 
by  various  newspaper  men  who  learn  nothing. 
Then  at  9,  either  we  call  on  His  Excellency 
the  Viceroy  or  the  Tao  Tai,  or  one  of  them 
calls  on  us.  Sweet  champagne  at  this  time. 
Then  home  and  work  till  our  cook  serves  us 
his  invariable  lunch,  then  more  work  or  calls 
or  errands,  dinner  and  bed.  It  may  not  sound- 
exciting,  but  it  is. 

Of  course  our  hotel  is  n't  a  Waldorf,  we 

C  114  3 


LETTERS 

have  no  beds  or  sheets  or  any  effete  luxuries 
hke  that,  but  by  and  by  we  may  have  a  real 
roof  of  our  own  and  chairs,  etc.  .  .  . 

For  all  my  jeers  Mukden  is  a  perfe6lly  bully 
place,  for  all  the  world  like  a  pocket-piece 
Peking.  Just  now  the  streets  are  rather  torn 
up,  as  a  reform  movement  is  sweeping  the 
town  and  they  are  repairing,  but  that  only 
adds,  and  shows  the  merry  little  Manchu  at 
work.  I  could  have  a  few  shops  and  not  kick, 
as  it  is  absolutely  impossible  to  buy  anything 
there.  Still,  the  awful  port  of  Newchwang  is 
only  nine  hours  or  sixteen  dollars  (Mex.) 
off,  so  when  we  want  a  smoke  or  drink  we 
can  go  and  get  it,  or  a  hair-cut,  for  though 
my  Boy  is  a  barber  he  only  knows  the  Chi- 
nese style,  which  don't  become  us.  .  .  . 
Happy  as  a  lark, 

Neil 


[TO  HIS  MOTHER] 

Mukden,  OB.  25 

Dearest  M--: 

Here  I  am,  back  from  my  wanderings  and 
once  more  in  my  little  Chinese  Inn,  which 
begins  to  seem  like  home.  Two  letters,  one 
10th  and  one  i8th  of  September,  and  one  full 
of  clippings,  came  this  week,  together  with 
one  from  S —  wishing  me  a  birthday  wish, — 


LETTERS 

mighty  welcome  they  were  too,  the  first  news 
since  St.  Petersburg.  It  seems  less  like  writ- 
ing at  a  stone  wall  now  than  it  did,  not  that 
I  ever  thought  you  a  stone  wall,  but  some- 
how to  fling  letters  off  the  Siberian  express 
and  never  hear,  was  rather  a  bore  after  the 
first  three  weeks.  I  wonder  if  you  ever  got 
them. 

Peking,  on  the  whole,  disappointed  me ;  it 
is  really  only  an  enlarged  Mukden,  and  of 
course  most  people  see  it  for  the  first  native 
city.  I  forget  whether  I  wrote  from  there  or 
not.  I  was  rather  busy  most  of  the  time,  so 
did  n't  see  many  sights;  in  fa6l,  only  one  Lama 
temple  and  the  famous  Temple  of  Heaven. 
That  is  certainly  one  of  the  wonders  of  the 
world.  The  altar  where  they  worship  Heaven 
(a  wonderful  idea)  is  a  round  marble  plat- 
form with  three  steps  up,  and  in  its  extreme 
simplicity  is  one  of  the  most  gorgeous  things 
I  have  ever  seen.  The  view  from  the  walls, 
too,  is  splendid, — I  mean  the  city  walls,  you 
look  quite  into  the  Forbidden  City  with  its 
gold-bronze  roofs;  but  the  Legation  quarter 
is  so  very  new  and  European  that  it  seems 
out  of  place  and  spoils  the  effe6l.  I  stayed 
with  Mr.  Coolidge  and  played  with  the  P — s 
all  the  time. 

On  my  way  back  I  stopped  off  at  Tien-tsin, 
did  a  little  shopping,  fled  to  Newchwang  and 

[lie;] 


LETTERS 

so  home.  Once  here  I  found  Arnell,  a  plea- 
sant fellow,  whom  we  don't  see  much  ex- 
cept at  work,  which  we  are  very  busy  at  now. 
My  report  is  done  ( thank  Heaven ! )  and  will 
be  off  as  soon  as  our  supplies  come  and  I  can 
type- write  it.  Fancy  me  type-writing!  Our 
house  seems  as  far  off  as  before,  and  as  win- 
ter is  coming  fast,  we  may  have  to  stay  here 
till  spring.  However,  it 's  fairly  comfortable, 
and  this  week  there  have  been  three  Euro- 
peans here.  When  we  are  not  aftually  writ- 
ing we  are  either  paying  or  receiving  official 
visits  at  very  odd  moments,  anywhere  from 
8  a.m.  to  5  p.m.  And  on  Saturday  we  dine  the 
Viceroy  and  members  of  the  Foreign  Office. 
Then  things  are  nearly  over,  also  our  first 
press  of  work ;  so  in  a  week  or  two  I  hope  to 
be  able  to  see  a  little  of  the  place.  We  shall 
have  to  get  ponies  first,  though,  as  the  roads 
are  impassable  for  'rickshaws  and  too  dirty  to 
walk  much.  I  did  walk  on  the  walls  yester- 
day, on  my  way  to  see  Mr.  Ross,  the  oldest 
missionary  and  extremely  famous.  It  was  a 
pleasant  walk,  and  surprising  to  a  degree,  for 
I  suddenly  discovered  a  small  thing  which 
looks  just  like  the  Forbidden  City.  It  turned 
out  to  be  the  Palace. 

You  cannot  imagine  the  beauty  of  this  place 
at  sunset,  when  everything  fades  away  into  a 
sort  of  gloom.  It  makes  me  wish  I  could  paint. 


LETTERS 

Straight  does,  and  1 11  try  to  get  a  pifture 
from  him  to  send  you. 

Many  thanks  for  the  clippings.  Just  think 
how  sorry  Barrie  will  feel  that  he  fell  in  love 
so  soon,  when  he  sees  her!  Do  send  me  clip- 
pings of  her  success.  The  other  things  ( ex- 
cept about  Lawton's  valley )  I  knew,  for  the 
papers  out  here  publish  the  strangest  lot  of 
miscellaneous  stuff;  they  announced  — *s  en- 
gagement, for  example. 

Hosiers  book  on  Manchuria  is  a  very  good 
one  to  read,  and  Colquhoun  has  written  one 
of  his  readable  things,  called  ''Overland  to 
China,''  an  enormous  volume,  but  much  what 
we  did.  One,  I  forget  which,  has  a  good  de- 
scription of  Mukden.  I  must  go  to  bed  as  it's 
late,  and  the  Taotun  Tao  Chu  calls  to-morrow 
at  8.30,  which  means  frock  coat,  cakes,  tea, 
cigarettes,  and  a  sip  of  very  bad  champagne 
before  work !  It's  lucky  you  are  not  supposed 
to  do  more  than  wet  your  lips. 

Best  love, 

Neil 


[FROM  A  LETTER  TO  HIS  FATHER] 

Mukden,  0^.  26,  1906 

Dear  P—  : 

Except  for  the  fa6l  that  we  are  still  in  the 

Chinese  hotel  with  no  immediate  prospeft  of 


LETTERS 

a  house  things  are  going  on  in  a  very  pleasant 
way.  We  have  two  small  rooms  for  office  and 
a  couple  of  bedrooms  as  well,  only  it  is  an 
awful  bore  to  live  in  a  trunk  and  sleep  on  a 
mat!  However,  we  are  pioneers  and  cannot 
expeft  much  luxury. 

My  Peking  trip  was  fine,  not  only  in  see- 
ing the  place,  but  it  let  me  get  more  in  touch 
with  what  is  going  on  out  here — and  besides 
I  saw  a  number  of  people  whom  I  was  very 
glad  to.  I  am  awfully  sorry  not  to  have  seen 
Sir  Robert  Hart.  The  city  itself  is  most  inter- 
esting, only  Mukden  in  many  ways  is  much 
finer,  so  I  was  a  little  disappointed.  Still  the 
Temple  of  Heaven  is  one  of  the  finest  things 
I  have  ever  seen. 

We  are  not  very  gay  here — only  about  half 
a  dozen  Europeans  that  I  see,  except  for  the 
occasional  tourist.  The  latter  is  very  few  and 
far  between.  The  more  I  see  of  the  Northern 
Chinaman  the  more  I  like  him,  and  at  pre- 
sent we  are  very  friendly  with  the  Viceroy 
and  his  Foreign  Office.  Our  third  man  has 
turned  up,  and,  what  is  extraordinarily  lucky, 
is  an  expert  stenographer.  Now  that  we  have 
a  type- writer  we  keep  him  fairly  busy. 

Please  give  my  regards  to  Mr.  L.  and  the 
rest,  and  love  to  C — . 

Love, 

Neil 


LETTERS 

[FROM  A  LETTER  TO  J.  G.  F.] 

Mukden,  OSi.  27 

.  .  .  My  life  here  so  far  has  been  one  round 
of  official  visits ;  little  Willy  in  a  frock  coat 
and  topper  sitting  cross-legged  in  a  Chinese 
cart,  waving  a  large  red  visiting  card,  with 
outriders  going  before,  is  a  well-known  sight. 
Also  I  have  dined  at  the  Yamen  with  the  Vice- 
roy, and  to-night  we  gave  a  bang-up  dinner 
in  return.  It  does  n't  sound,  perhaps,  as  queer 
to  you  as  it  is,  but  just  remember  that  there 
are  only  seven  Europeans  here  in  this  city 
of  400,000  Chinese,  missionaries  excepted.  I 
came  in  at  about  5.15,  the  dinner  being  at 
6.30.  No  sooner  had  I  arrived  than  the  Tao 
Tai's  card  was  announced,  so  out  I  bounced 
and  sat  him  down  with  a  cigarette,  while 
Straight  dressed.  For  twenty  minutes  we  sat 
( bespeaks  no  English )  and  bowed  and  smiled, 
and  then  the  door  opened,  and  instead  of 
Straight  in  walked  an  utter  stranger, one  Tou- 
Tung  ( also  no  English ) ,  again  bows  and  ci- 
garettes. Then  Straight  appeared  and  I  fled  to 
dress.  When  I  got  back — it  wasn't  yet  6.15 
— the  whole  crowd  was  there.  More  bows  and 
cigarettes,  then  tea,  and  finally  a  good  old- 
fashioned  dinner.  .  .  . 
There  is  one  saving  thing  about  Chinese 

C  120  ] 


LETTERS 

official  dinners,  they  may  start  early,  but  they 
certainly  finish  soon.  By  9  we  were  through, 
and  Mr.  Oliver  and  all  of  us  went  to  our 
rooms  and  smoked.  Really,  though,  it  was 
quite  a  fancy  dinner;  the  Viceroy,  two  Tao 
Tais,  the  Tou  Tung,  and  a  man  named  Lo, 
whose  title  I  don't  know.  Now,  thank  Heaven, 
it  is  all  over,  and  we  shan't  have  to  give  a 
state  affair  for  some  time.  One  funny  thing  is 
the  way  everyone  peeps  through  the  windows 
at  us,  always.  A  Chinese  Inn  is  made  up  of  a 
number  of  one^storied  buildings  with  large 
windows  and  no  curtains.  The  rooms  are  about 
10x10,  with  a  raised  place  on  one  side  on 
which  you  sleep.  Of  the  conveniences  the  less 
said  the  better.  However,  I  think  we  shall  get 
a  house  soon,  in  fa 61,  we  have  a  nine-room 
one  in  mind  now.  Things  are  horribly  expen- 
sive here;  I  pay  my  Boy  $7.50  a  month,  which 
is  terrific  here  in  China.  .  .  . 

Thine, 

Neil 


[TO  HIS  MOTHER] 

Mukden,  Nov.  2 

Dearest  M--: 

Your  missing  letter  of  the  6th  turned  up  a 

day  or  two  ago,  together  with  one  from  S — . 


LETTERS 

Also  your  letter  of  the  26th  arrived  here  on 
061.  26,  which  makes  us  seem  much  nearer 
than  before. 

Very  little  has  happened  since  I  wrote,  ex- 
cept routine  office  work  and  a  vain  search  for 
houses.  Now  I  am  afraid  it  is  too  late,  as  it  is 
28°  to-day,  so  the  time  for  repairs  is  over  and 
it  looks  as  if  we  should  stay  here  all  winter. 
However,  we  are  fairly  comfortable,  and  no- 
thing suffers  but  our  dignity.  The  Japs  have 
promised  to  give  us  one  of  the  many  unoccu- 
pied buildings  they  are  still  holding, .  .  .  and 
the  Tao  Tai  has  now  said  he  would  help  us, 
so  we  may  have  something  before  the  year  is 
out. 

We  gave  a  dinner  on  Saturday  last  to  the 
Viceroy,  the  two  Tao  Tais,  the  Tu  Tung  and 
a  Mr.  Lo.  It  was  called  for  6.30,  but  when  I 
strolled  in  at  5.15  after  a  walk  to  the  Fultons 
( to  try  to  borrow  some  candlesticks ),  I  found 
them  all  assembled,  and  Straight  only  half 
dressed.  In  I  went  and  bowed  low, —  it  is  a 
great  honour  for  the  Viceroy  to  come  to  dine 
at  a  hotel,  I  can  tell  you, — gave  them  ciga- 
rettes and  tea,  and  then  sat  and  looked  plea- 
sant while  they  talked  Chinese  until  Straight 
appeared.  Then  I  dressed  in  haste  and  re- 
turned just  in  time  to  prevent  my  fool  Boy 
from  passing  round  chocolate  in  cocktail  glass- 
es, thinking  that  was  what  we  meant.  That 

C    122    3 


LETTERS 

was  corre6led,  and  the  celestials  burned  their 
throats  and  sat  with  tears  in  their  eyes  from 
our  "American"  drink.  Mr.  Oliver  and  Ar- 
nell  made  up  the  party,  which  broke  up  at 
eight,  after  a  long  dinner  and  short  smoke. 
The  Tu  Tung  ( I  don't  know  what  he  is  ex- 
cept that  he  is  second  only  to  the  Viceroy ) 
is  a  real  Manchu,  about  5  ft.  10,  very  good- 
looking,  and  the  colour  of  the  old  fishermen 
round  our  coast.  He  has  never  been  even  so 
far  away  from  Mukden  as  Newchwang,  and 
won't  believe  America  is  where  it  is,  in  fa6l, 
rather  doubts  its  existence.  We  told  him  about 
the  tall  buildings,  and  he  merely  smiled  sadly, 
so  we  showed  him  a  circular  we  had,  with  a  pic- 
ture of  the  Park  Row  Building  in  it,  which  he 
merely  thought  was  a  clever  pifture,  but  any- 
one could  draw  a  house  like  that.  He  and  the 
TaoTaiand  the  Viceroy  are  very  nice,  friendly, 
witty  and  very  progressive.  The  Viceroy  has 
started  an  Agricultural  College,  and  is  talk- 
ing of  getting  some  man  from  home  to  come 
and  demonstrate  machinery.  Also,  he  has  a 
mint, — and  I  am  sure  I  must  have  written 
about  the  street  repairs !  every  one  is  so  torn 
up  that  it  is  as  much  as  your  life  is  worth  to 
walk. 

On  Sunday  we  went  out  to  the  North  Tomb. 
It  is  a  four  or  five  mile  walk  before  you  strike 
the  entrance,  a  patch  of  fir  trees  with  shrubs 

C  123  J 


LETTERS 

covered  with  mistletoe,  with  red  and  yellow 
berries,  and  then  you  walk  up  an  overgrown 
path  for  about  half  a  mile  to  the  gates.  Again, 
it  is  beyond  description.  1 11  take  piftures  now 
(by  the  way,  I  haven't  had  any  developed 
yet)  and  that  will  give  you  some  idea  of  it, 
only  nothing  can  show  the  brilliant  reds  and 
yellows,  blues  and  greens,  of  the  walls  and 
roofs.  They  are  perfeftly  barbaric,  yet  they 
blend  perfe6lly.  First  you  come  to  a  stone 
arch  beautifully  carved,  back  of  which  is  the 
gate  to  the  first  courtyard.  The  door  was  n't 
open,  so  we  climbed  the  wall  and  got  in.  This 
court  is  about  1/4  of  a  mile  long,  a  broad  path 
running  up  the  middle  to  a  small  shrine,  lined 
on  either  hand  with  carved  animals, all  the  size 
of  a  house ;  lions,  bears,  camels,  elephants  ( de- 
lightful fat  ones )  and  horses.  Back  of  these 
are  the  firs,  which  look  like  the  pictures  on 
plates.  Beyond  the  shrine  is  the  main  court 
with  the  Tomb,  but  here  we  could  n't  get,  as 
you  need  a  pass.  Everything  brilliant,  with  a 
gorgeous  blue  sky  overhead. ...  As  Straight 
said  when  we  got  back,  a  place  like  that  to 
live  in  and  you  would  have  to  be  good  always. 
A  Newchwang  man  named  D —  was  with  us. 
He  wants  to  come  up  here  and  work,  which 
will  be  splendid.  .  .  . 

Have  I  told  you  that  our  office  furniture  has 
arrived,  ten  carts  full!  It  has  been  knocking 

i  124  n 


LETTERS 

around  here  since  before  the  war,  when  a  Con- 
sulate was  to  have  been  opened,  but  could  n't 
be,  and  the  stuff  will  make  excellent  firewood. 
In  notifying  the  Department  of  its  arrival  I 
told  them  it  was  broken,  and  that  we  had 
unpacked  the  "  following ^/^^^5;  **  but  whether 
they  will  see  the  point  I  don't  know.  Some  day 
I  hope  I  can  get  a  job  there  for  a  year  or  so, 
to  see  how  they  work,  for  out  here  it  seems 
as  if  they  just  go  ahead  without  ever  think- 
ing. The  different  countries  are  divided  alpha- 
betically, I  believe,  so  that  one  man  takes 
Chih,  China,  Costa  Rica,  etc.  The  trouble  is, 
we  are  so  sore  about  the  house  that  I  am  afraid 
we  complain  a  great  deal  You  see,  we  had 
just  about  engaged  a  temple  when  the  de- 
spatch came  saying  we  were  to  locate  inside 
the  walls. 

I  am  not  going  to  buy  a  bally  thing  this 
year,  it's  not  worth  while  until  I  know  more 
about  these  things,  so  no  one  must  expe6l  a 
Christmas  present.  I  am  sorry, — but  until  I 
can  talk  there  is  no  use  buying  things,  my 
Boy  is  a  regular  high  financier  in  the  art  of 
robbery  by  commission,  and  I  cannot  ask  my 
Chief  to  do  errands  for  me ! 

Best  of  love  to  all, 

Neil 

If  M —  is  going  to  be  sent  out  here,  I  wish 

C  125  ] 


LETTERS 

he  could  come  to  Newchwang,  for  his  Bank 
is  going  to  start  a  new  office  there,  and  it  is 
only  9  hours  off,  very  cold  ones,  to  be  sure, 
for  the  Japs  don't  heat  their  cars,  still  we  could 
meet  every  once  in  a  while. 


[FROM  A  LETTER  TO  HIS  BROTHER] 

Nov.  2 

Dear  J — : 

It  is  awfully  interesting  work  out  here ;  rather 
lonely,  but  a  wonderful  place  and  climate. 
There  are  not  many  of  us,  only  6  mission- 
aries and  their  families  and  about  half  a  dozen 
of  us,  all  told,  but  pretty  soon  the  other  con- 
suls will  turn  up,  and  it  will  be  a  little  more 
gay.  My  trip  to  Peking  was  bully,  but  really 
I  find  that  I  have  a  tremendous  amount  of  lo- 
cal pride,  and  really  prefer  Mukden.  I  want 
to  get  a  pony  as  soon  as  possible,  and  then 
perhaps  I  shall  have  time  to  see  some  of  the 
sights  here.  Any  description  I  can  make  of  the 
place  goes  to  M —  at  once,  so  you  will  have 
to  ask  her  to  tell  you  what  it  is  like. 

I  wrote  you  from  the  Trans-Siberian  to 
thank  you  for  the  "Shikspur,''  but  have  a  sus- 
picion that  those  letters  never  got  through,  so 
once  more,  many  thanks  indeed.  What  do  you 
think  of  me  as  a  Typist.^  pretty  fancy,  I  think. 

Give  my  love  to  C —  and  G —  and  anyone 


LETTERS 

like  J.  G.  F.,  H.  L.,  R.  E.  B.,  F.  S.,  etc.,  and 
especially  E — . 

As  ever, 

Neil 

[from  a  letter  to  miss  j.  m.] 

Mukden,  Nov.  4 

Here  it  is  worse  than  New  York  in  the  way 
things  slide  along ;  before  you  know  it  another 
week  has  gone  by.  It  does  seem  extraordi- 
narily natural — and  pleasanter  than  even  my 
most  sanguine  thoughts. 

Winter  has  set  in,  think  of  that!  and  all  our 
clothes  are  somewhere  on  the  ocean,  for  in  an 
unwise  moment  we  shipped  them  from  Bre- 
men instead  of  taking  them.  The  result,  as 
you  may  easily  imagine,  is  one  of  purple  noses 
and  fingers.  Do  you  remember  telling  me 
about  a  book  called  "The  Silent  Places,''  I 
think,  in  which  intense  cold  is  described  .^^ 
Well,  that  is  what  we  feel  here  in  summer 
clothes  with  the  mercury  refusing  to  budge 
over  20°, 

I  had  a  most  wonderful  time  in  Peking  and 
saw  most  marvellous  sights.  The  Great  Wall 
was  one — an  enormous,  snake-like  thing 
crawling  away  in  the  distance, over  mountains, 
through  streams,  not  troubling  or  stopping  at 

C  127  ] 


LETTERS 

any  obstacle.  I  saw  it  first  in  the  twilight  at 
Shan-Hin~Kwan,  where  it  looked  so  mysteri- 
ous and  silently  powerful  that  I  was  glad  to 
get  back  to  the  lights  of  the  hotel.  The  twi- 
light here  always  a6ls  on  me  like  that,  I  want 
to  get  in  and  dream,  yet  I  hate  to  leave  it 
when  the  time  comes.  Such  nights ! — the  moon 
nearing  the  full,  not  a  cloud  anywhere,  and 
only  the  little  twinkling  street  lights,  the  offi- 
cials with  their  lantern-bearers  walking  on 
ahead,  huge  lanterns  three  or  four  feet  high, 
of  oiled  silk  with  their  titles  painted  on  them 
in  large  red  Chinese  letters.  I  tell  you,  it's 
worth  all  the  discomfort  and  the  distance  just 
to  see  it.  And  the  days  are  just  as  beautiful, 
only  I  am  usually  too  busy  to  see  them. 

To-day  we  walked  out  of  the  city  on  the 
other  side,  to  call  on  some  missionaries.  Walk- 
ing back  it  was  perfe6lly  beautiful;  the  sun 
just  setting  over  the  walls  and  gates,  more 
like  a  fine  old  print  than  anything  you  can 
imagine,  only  the  colours  were  so  soft  and 
blended ;  the  long  gray  walls  with  their  pa- 
goda-gates against  a  faint  pale  pink  sky.  Night 
comes  very  quickly  here,  so  the  end  of  our 
walk  was  in  darkness,  except  for  the  street 
lamps  and  here  and  there  an  open  door  through 
which  we  could  see  shadow-like  forms  sitting. 
Flitting  up  and  down  in  the  dark  were  little 
Chinese  lanterns,  and  every  little  while  the 


LETTERS 

gleaming  lamps  of  a  'rickshaw  would  pass. 
Really  it  seemed  as  though  we  were  in  a  sort 
of  dream,  yet  it  was  strangely  familiar  too. 
At  first  the  mud-coloured  walls  seem  queer, 
but  you  soon  notice  a  kind  of  beauty  in  them, 
especially  here  where  the  lights  are  very  clear 
and  the  colours  are  soft.  With  all  the  charm 
and  beauty,  however,  one  gets  very  lonely 
and  there  is  a  lot  of  time  to  think.  That  may 
change  when  we  get  our  other  quarters,  but 
I  notice  it  in  every  white  person  here.  It  is 
driving  me  to  poetry  and  dreams — and  letters. 


[FROM  A  LETTER  TO  N.  B.] 

Mukden,  Nov.  5 

Dear  N— : 

As  nearly  as  I  can  recall,  to-morrow  is  Elec- 
tion Day  in  New  York,  which  fa6l  reminds  me 
of  some  we  spent  together — therefore  this. 
Also  another  thing  which  has  kept  you  pain- 
fully before  my  mind  is  that  I  think,  or  rather 
fear,  that  I  owe  you  a  dinner  for  Port  Arthur. 
That  is  naturally  brought  home  to  me  here, 
only  24  hours  from  the  spot,  and  also  because 
I  feel  more  than  ever  that  I  was  right  and  you 
wrong  in  our  desires  about  the  war !  .  .  . 

You'd  like  this  place  immensely.  A  fine  old 
walled  city,  with  its  eight  gates  surmounted 
by  pagoda-like  houses,  the  tiled  roofs  with 

C  129  ] 


LETTERS 

porcelain  dogs  on  the  ridge-poles  to  keep  ofF 
the  devils,  and  its  genial  population,  merry  as 
the  Devil,  v^orking  and  singing  all  day.  The 
Northern  Chinee  is  a  fine  big  chap,  not  at  all 
like  our  Pell  St.  friends,  and  the  women's 
head-dress  is  so  pi6luresque  that  you  walk 
about  smiling  because  you  are  here.  Then  be- 
sides the  town,  there  are  the  tombs,  and  all 
their  splendours,  and  great  stretches  of  plain 
simply  covered  with  wild  ducks  and  geese, 
grouse,  snipe,  quail,  pheasant,  fox,  wolf,  deer 
— in  fa6l,  every  sort  of  game  ready  to  drop 
when  they  see  a  gun.  Though  our  quarters 
are  not  of  the  best  ( brick  beds  and  mats  to 
sleep  on,  and  very  queer  Chinese  food ) ,  and 
though  there  are  only  about  20  white  people 
here,  it  appeals  to  me  more  than  any  place  I 
have  seen  for  the  devil  of  a  while.  New  York 
— Oh,  Lord — I  hope  I  shan't  see  it  for  years. 
It 's  hard  work  too,  for  the  country  is  prafti- 
cally  virgin,  and  we  have  to  pile  off  reports 
every  week,  on  the  R.  R.'s,  the  forests,  rivers, 
mines,  and  besides  we  have  to  keep  close  tab 
on  the  political  doings.  Thank  Heaven  there 
is  absolutely  none  of  the  ordinary  consular 
work,  such  as  invoices,  etc.,  here,  it  is  purely 
a  diplomatic  post.  If  we  can  ever  get  a  house 
I  shall  be  glad,  because  to  work,  eat,  sleep 
and  receive  Chinese  officials  in  two  rooms 
palls,  and  especially  when  we  have  to  watch 
t  130  J 


LETTERS 

all  our  letters  and  keep  our  things  in  locked 
trunks.  Houses,  though,  are  very  hard  to  get, 
there  being  an  influx  of  countrymen  whose 
houses  were  burned  in  the  war,  and  a  number 
of  new  officials  ( our  Viceroy  is  very  progres- 
sive and  has  started  an  agricultural  college 
as  well  as  a  number  of  others ) .  .  .  .  We  are 
bending  every  energy  to  getting  some  pro- 
stitutes out  of  an  old  official  yamen,  but  the 
Japanese  Consul  seems  rather  doubtful.  Some 
did  offer  to  move  if  we  would  pay  for  the 
improvements  they  had  built — a  bathroom — 
but  their  bill  was  $3100,  Mex.,  which,  as  our 
contingent  fund  is  considerably  less  than  that, 
we  politely  refused. The  whole  thing  could  n't 
have  cost  ^100,  Mex.  That's  what  we  are  up 
against ! 

The  Chinese,  on  the  other  hand,  are  bully. 
The  only  trouble  is  that  official  calls — and  you 
have  to  call  on  every  bally  official — take  place 
before  a  true  Southern  gentleman,  like  B — , 
would  have  dreamed  of  getting  up,  and  are 
celebrated  by  a  flow  of  champagne,  indige- 
nous ( I  hope )  to  China,  which  makes  our  Cali- 
fornia brands  taste  like  neftar  in  comparison. 
The  Viceroy  is  a  corker,  but  the  one  I  like 
best  is  the  Fu-Tu-Tung,  an  old  Manchu  who 
has  never  been  100  miles  from  Mukden. 
When  I  pointed  on  a  map  to  New  York,  and 
then  showed  on  a  teacup  where  it  was  in  re- 


LETTERS 

ference  to  Mukden,  he  merely  smiled  and 
said  he  did  n't  believe  there  was  any  place  so 
far  away.  Then,  to  utterly  flabbergast  him,  I 
produced  a  pifture  of  the  Park  Row  building 
which  we  had  in  a  catalogue.  That  he  merely 
thought  was  a  nice  idea,  and  treated  it  as  he 
might  a  pifture  of  a  dragon,  only  I  fancy  he 
takes  more  stock  in  the  latter.  Once  the  Vice- 
roy gave  us  a  dinner.  I  wish  I  still  had  the 
menu.  Everything  was  mixed  up.  First  tea,  of 
course,  then  port,  then  beer,  then  white  wine, 
more  beer,then  champagne, sherry  and  green 
mint.  The  eatables  were  just  as  confused — 
all  foreign,  except  shark 's-fin  soup,  which  is 
very  good  indeed.  That  was  all  the  poor  old 
fellow  could  eat. 

I  took  a  run  to  Peking  ( four  days*  trip)  and 
it  seemed  as  if  I  had  reached  an  enormous 
place.  One  a6lually  met  Europeans  in  the 
street,  whereas  here  you  do  perhaps  once  a 
week.  Besides  that  I  stayed  with  Mr.  John 
Coolidge  and  played  with  B.  Phillips  and  his 
family,  so  that  I  might  as  well  as  not  have 
been  in  Boston.  There  were  two  other  Har- 
vard men  there  at  work,  Marshall  of  New 
York  ( '94 )  and  a  young  '04  man  in  the  Cus- 
toms. The  cities  are  much  alike  in  appearance, 
so  I  shall  have  to  confess  that  I  was  disap- 
pointed. Most  people  see  Peking  as  their  first 
Chinese  city,  but  coming  as  it  did  it  seemed 

C  132  ] 


LETTERS 

more  foreign  than  native  to  me.  Eleven  hours 
in  a  Chinese  cart  through  Northern  Manchu- 
ria shows  one  a  good  deal  of  the  native  life. 
From  what  I  have  seen  of  the  Treaty-port 
Europeans,  I  am  thankful  we  have  so  few  here 
(incidentally  it  gives  me  more  time  for  my 
study  of  Chinese ) ,  for  they  are  a  pretty  tough 
set.  Their  general  conversation  would  open 
C — 's  eyes  as  to  lost  opportunities. 

Make  a  general  sprinkling  of  my  regards, 
etc.,  among  the  G — s,  F — s,  H — s,  O.B., 
C.  H.,  C — s  (twain)  and  anyone  else,  espe- 
cially to  E — . 

Do  write  me  sometimes  if  you  have  time  to 
spare.  to  .siriBn  t!  * 

^^^^^•■'      Neil 


[FROM  A  LETTER  TO  HIS  BROTHER] 

Mukden,  Nov.  6 

Dear  B— : 

I  WONDER  if  you  ever  got  my  scrawl  from  the 
train  containing  my  thanks,  and  if  you  did, 
were  you  able  to  read  it.^  I  hope  so,  not  because 
it  contained  anything  of  value,  but  because  I 
don't  want  to  seem  ungrateful,  for  that  I  most 
certainly  am  not. 

As  you  may  have  heard  we  got  here  on  the 
2nd  of  last  month,  exceeding  glad  to  do  so  too. 
Since  then,  with  the  exception  of  a  two  weeks' 

[  ^^^  H 


LETTERS 

trip, — to  Peking  and  back, —  we  have  been 
hard  at  work  straightening  out  things  and 
looking  for  houses.  .  .  . 

It  is  a  wonderful  place.  The  city  itself  is  a 
miniature  edition  of  Peking,  square,  walled, 
gray  houses,  and  a  palace  with  its  gold-bronze 
roof  to  take  the  place  of  the  Forbidden  City 
of  Peking.  For  all  the  fighting  around  it,  and 
the  long  occupations  by  both  Japanese  and 
Russians,  it  is  an  absolutely  unspoiled  and 
untouched  Chinese  city,  where  we  handful  of 
Europeans  are  still  enough  of  a  novelty  to 
have  crowds  follow  when  we  walk  out.  The 
crowds,  however,  are  merely  genial,  friendly 
people,  who  ask  your  name,  or  whether  you 
are  a  do6lor  or  not,  just  as  different  from 
my  beloved  scowling  Turks  as  anything  that 
could  be  imagined.  If  you  liked  Persia,  you 
would  go  crazy  over  China — at  least  the  parts 
I  have  seen. 

The  other  consuls  have  not  yet  arrived.  I 
have  met  both  the  British,  and  his  Vice,  and  the 
German,  who  are  very  nice;  but  the  Russian 
and  French  are  unknown  quantities.  How- 
ever, we  have  more  than  we  can  do,  and  lack 
of  company  helps  the  study  of  Chinese.  Once 
we  get  a  house  and  we  can  get  ponies,  and 
then  the  country  will  be  open  to  us.  I  have  n't 
seen  the  Palace  yet,  but  if  it's  like  the  Tombs 
it  will  be  about  the  finest  thing  going.  The 
C    134  ] 


LETTERS 

North  Tomb  is  too  wonderful  for  description. 
It  gives  the  same  contemplative  feeling  you 
get  at  one  of  the  English  Universities,  only 
with  a  wealth  of  colour.  Every  day  I  am  thank- 
ful to  be  here.  Shooting  also  is  excellent,  but 
my  gun,  like  my  heavy  clothes,  is  somewhere 
on  the  way,  and  it's  about  20°  here  now! 

Give  my  love  to  E — ,  also  Julian  P.  if  you 
see  him.  Do  write  a  line  once  in  a  while. 

Affly, 

Neil  . 

[from  a  letter  to  h.  g.  m.] 

Mukden,  Nov.  8 

Yesterday,  as  I  was  walking  down  the  Ssu 
Ping  Gai  after  a  matinee  at  the  opera,  and 
looking  at  all  the  eleftric  lights  spring  up  in 
the  dusk,  conscious  of  the  annoying  clang  and 
clatter  of  the  street  cars,  I — well,  that 's  not 
what  it  is  like,  but  it's  a  great  deal  easier  to 
say  what  it  is  not  than  what  it  is.  Howsome- 
dever,  what  I  wanted  to  say  was  that  I  hear 
your  bank  is  to  open  its  doors  at  Newchwang, 
so  if  you  are  to  be  sent  to  the  East,  why  don't 
you  go  there  if  possible,  for  there  we  shall  be 
a  mere  9  hours  apart  .^ . . .  I  certainly  like  the 
place  well  enough  to  stay  here  five  or  six 
years.  .  .  . 

C  135  ] 


LETTERS 

[  TO  HIS  MOTHER  ] 


Mukden,  Nov.  8 


A  HOME  mail  to-day,  with  a  letter  from  you, 
one  from  S — ,  and  two  bunches  of  clippings, 
for  which  I  was  very  thankful.  Some  of  the 
ships  carry  the  mail  through  to  Shanghai,  so 
we  are  very  uncertain  when  to  expeft  any. 
It  is  funny  to  read  of  my  Moscow  letters — it 
all  seems  ages  ago.  Thank  S — ,  and  ask  her 
why  she  did  n't  send  the  pictures  of  the  family 
under  the  *' forest '*  as  well  as  the  one  of  Miss 
H.  and  the  spider.^  None  of  the  things  we 
sent  by  water  have  arrived,  so  I  am  entirely 
without  piftures  of  my  family ;  and  there  are 
times  when  I  want  them  very  much.  So  I  hope 
some  future  mail  will  bring  them. 

To-day  I  sent,  via  Shanghai, . . .  the  piftures 
I  had  taken  on  the  way.  They  went  addressed 
to  J.  C.  F.  partly  because  I  was  n't  sure  where 
you  were — they  are  registered — and  partly 
because  if  you  are  in  Cahfornia,  they  will  be 
looked  at  by  those  in  the  East  and  then  sent 
on  to  you.  So  you  had  better  tell  them  they 
are  for  you,  though  I  marked  a  "--"  in  the 
corner  of  the  envelope. 

I  forget  when  I  wrote  last,  but  I  think  it 
was  about  a  week  ago.  At  any  rate  I  have 
been  to  the  Emperor's  birthday  party  since, 
C   ^S6  ] 


LETTERS 

and  there  I  saw  some  Chinese  juggling.  Glory 
be !  For  one  hour  and  a  half  I  sat  spell-bound, 
watching  a  little  Chinaman  do  impossible 
things.  You  remember  Ching-Ling-Foo  in 
America.^  Well,  this  man  did  all  he  did  with 
one  hand.  Where  Ching  took  out  one  bowl 
from  nowhere,  this  one  took  nine.  A  few  days 
later  he  came  round  to  get  a  testimonial,  and 
showed  us  what  he  called  a  simple  little  thing. 
It  was  merely  to  set  a  cup  upside  down  on  the 
table  at  which  we  were  sitting,  and  throw  five 
little  beads  into  it  without  touching  it.  That  is, 
they  were  in  his  hand,  and  then  suddenly  ap- 
peared in  the  cup,  and  he  was  more  than  two 
feet  away  all  the  time !  Then  he  made  one  dis- 
sipate from  his  hand  and  materialize  again! ! ! 
If  we  ever  get  a  house  we  are  going  to  give 
a  blow-out  and  have  him.  He  has  two  sons  of 
6  and  8,  who  are  learning  it;  he  is  the  fifth 
generation  at  it,  but  so  far  their  efforts  are  di- 
refted  towards  contortion,  which  they  do  bet- 
ter than  any  I  have  seen,  and  not  in  such  a 
manner  that  it  looks  painful. 

...  So  let  it  suffice  that  I  tell  you  to  read 
Millard's  book  called  "The  Problems  of  the 
Far  East,''  and  tell  everyone  else  to  read  it 
also.  Everyone  out  here  recommends  it  as  a 
"sane,  impartial  and  fair  book." 

We  have  found  a  perfeftly  bully  compound 
in  the  city,  but  its  price  is  very  high.  How- 
C  137  J 


LETTERS 

ever,  as  it  is  apparently  the  only  one,  I  rather 
guess  we  will  take  it  if  we  can  get  it.  As  nei- 
ther the  Russians  or  Japanese  ever  paid  any- 
thing  for  the  houses  they  took,  the  Chinese 
are  rather  unwilling  to  rent  to  foreigners.  At 
present  we  are  trying  to  have  a  Tientsin  ar- 
chiteft  buy  it  and  rent  it  to  us,  hoping  we  can 
persuade  our  Government  to  buy  it  later.  If 
we  get  it  we  shall  have  by  far  the  most  com- 
fortable house  in  North  China ;  but  I  m  afraid 
it's  merely  a  castle  in  the  air. 

Only  one  visitor  this  week ;  but  there  is  an- 
other up  here,  though  I  haven't  seen  him, 
and  a  French  officer  staying  here  who  does  n't 
seem  to  want  to  know  us.  Straight  has  gone  to 
Yingkou  for  a  few  days,  so  I  am  keeping  up  a 
solitary  state  here,  as  Arnell  continues  to  live 
at  a  Japanese  hotel.  Still,  it  gives  me  a  much 
better  time  to  study  Chinese,  as  the  teacher 
is  our  "  writer,'*  and  now  I  can  do  six  hours 
a  day  and  make  no  progress.  It  is  so  funny  to 
sing  out  phrases  with  him  that  I  got  hysterics 
to-day  once,  much  to  his  alarm;  but  really, 
to  shout  out  a  foolish  sentence  about  "  a  hill 
200  li  high,"  in  unison,  is  too  foolish.  My  Boy 
gets  bluer  and  bluer  as  my  lessons  go  on,  for 
he  knows  he  will  get  chucked  as  soon  as  I 
can  talk  any.  It 's  his  own  fault,  for  he  cer- 
tainly steals  mightily;  not  by  taking  our  things, 
but  by  commissions,  and  once  I  caught  him 
C   138   ] 


LETTERS 

trying  to  squeeze  our  washerman.  There  was 
an  awful  scene,  and  since  then  he  has  been 
much  better. 

It  is  getting  more  and  more  interesting  here 
all  the  time.  Now  the  Viceroy  has  decided  not 
to  receive  us  any  more,  but  to  let  the  Tao  Tai, 
and  of  course  we  have  to  refuse  that,  which 
is  rather  complicated.  Also,  they  maintain  that 
the  city  itself  is  not  open,  whereas  the  treaty 
specifically  says  it  is — that  is  why  we  are  to 
live  inside — and  so  there  is  a  great  deal  of 
talk  about  that.  Gradually  the  others  are  com- 
ing up;  the  German  next  week  and  Fulford 
soon  after.  Both  of  them  have  houses,  though, 
while  I  poke  daily  into  the  dirtiest  sort  of 
compounds  imaginable.  One  great  thing  about 
the  house  we  are  after  here  is  that  it  is  new 
and  fairly  clean.  We  should  have  room  for  a 
tennis-court  inside  our  wall,  and  quite  a  big 
garden  as  well.  No  one  outside  believes  that  it 
is  hard  to  get  houses,  but  besides  the  influx  of 
Japs,  there  are  any  quantity  of  Chinese  who 
were  burned  out  during  the  war  and  have 
come  to  live  here.  To  corre6l  the  idea,  we  are 
trying  to  get  Mr.  Coolidge  to  come  up  here  on 
his  way  home.  The  German  is  spending  ^750, 
Fulford  ^400;  while  we  are  allowed  $900! 
It  means  Straight  going  into  his  own  pocket, 
but,  thank  Heaven,  it  is  not  so  expensive  here 
as  in  New  York,  so  he  can  afford  to. 
C   ^S9  J 


LETTERS 

I  had  quite  a  touch  of  local  pride  the  other 
day,  when  I  was  walking  on  the  walls  with 
a  Newchwang  man.  Really  one  gets  awfully 
fond  of  the  place,  and  once  we  are  settled 
and  have  time  to  explore,  it  will  be  wonderful. 
It's  fairly  small  too,  so  you  get  to  know  some 
of  the  people.  Almost  every  day  I  am  out,  I 
meet  some  Chinamen  I  know.  All  I  can  say  is 
"  hao,''  but  it  does.  Of  course  I  could  tell  them 
about  my  hill,  but  unfortunately  that  leads 
nowhere  ( if  it  did  I  should  be  stumped ) ,  so 
we  bow  and  walk  on.  Such  weather  too !  only 
one  rainy  day  so  far  ( then  the  mud  was  over 
your  boots,  but  who  cared),  clear  and  frosty, 
with  glorious  sunsets.  My  report  is  gone — 
hurrah! — and  now  I  can  turn  my  attention  to 
the  situation  here.  Our  report  on  that  will 
open  people's  eyes,  I  think. 

Love, 

Neil 


[FROM  A  LETTER  TO  J.  G.  F.] 

Mukden,  Nov.  8 

.  .  .  The  East  is  one  of  the  most  narrowing 
places  there  is,  I  suppose,  for  I  certainly  won- 
der how  anyone  can  be  seriously  interested  in 
anything  anywhere  else.  Then  besides,  Muk- 
den seems  such  an  important  place,  on  account 

C  140  ] 


LETTERS 

of  its  being  the  capital  of  Manchuria.  In  some 
ways  ( I  am  going  to  bore  you  with  some  of  our 
mix-ups )  it  must  be  more  or  less  like  the  very 
early  days  in  China,  except  that  there  is  a  new 
element  now, — Japan.  For  example,  by  our 
treaty  with  China,  Mukden,  Antung,  Tieling 
and  other  places  were  to  be  opened,  but  now 
China  says  that  it  only  means  the  land  out- 
side the  city,  not  the  city  itself.  To  show  them 
that  we  mean  the  city  proper,  Peking  (that  is, 
our  Legation)  has  ordered  us  to  live  in  the 
city.  Then  the  Viceroy — a  most  pleasant  old 
boy  to  meet — has  just  issued  a  note  to  the 
foreign  consuls  saying  that  he  won't  treat  with 
them,  but  his  Tao  Tai  will,  instead.  Of  course 
we  refused  that,  but  if  he  refuses  to  meet  us, 
what  can  we  do.^  Since  the  move  nothing  has 
come  up  which  has  necessitated  our  seeing 
him.  Then  again, though  there  is  a  foreign  con- 
cession outside  the  city,  the  Chinese  Govern- 
ment has  bought  up  all  the  land  and  refuses 
to  sell  to  us  foreigners,  which  is  a  thing  we 
shall  have  to  force  them  to  do.  .  .  .  All  these 
things  make  our  work  here  very  interesting. 
So  far  everything  has  been  smooth,  but  it  looks 
to  me  as  if  there  were  breakers  ahead. 


[   141    D 


LETTERS 

[TO  HIS  SISTER-IN-LAW] 

Mukden,  Nov.  13 

Dear  C— : 

I  HAD  a  letter  from  M-  -  to-day,  saying  how 
ill  your  mother  is,  and  I  want  merely  to  say 
how  sorry  I  am,  and  that  I  hope  she  will  be 
up  and  about  long  before  this  reaches  you. 

There  is  a  lot  of  time  in  which  to  think  out 
here,  away  from  the  "  world  "  and  completely 
out  of  touch  with  one's  friends,  and  I  have 
been  regretting  that  I  did  not  have  time  to 
say  good-bye  to  you  at  all ;  but  things  went  at 
such  a  pace,  there  did  not  even  seem  time  to 
realize  that  I  was  going — and  I  cannot  fully 
realize  that  I  am  here  yet.  We  are  pretty  busy 
with  routine  work  every  day,  besides  which  I 
am  immersed  in  Chinese  up  to  my  tuft.  I  used 
to  think  that  you  and  I  had  pretty  bad  hand- 
writings, but  bless  me,  the  Chinese  print  puts 
us  to  shame,  and  their  writing  is  simple  h — 1. 
The  worst  of  it  is  that  one  never  seems  to  ad- 
vance at  all,  and  were  it  not  for  the  fa6l  that 
Mr.  Oliver — the  Customs  man  here — has 
been  at  it  for  25  years  and  still  takes  lessons, 
I  should  begin  to  think  I  was  merely  dumb. 

The  Chinese  children  have  won  my  heart 
and  my  pocketbook.  They  are  perfeftly  bully, 
bright-eyed,  friendly  little  chaps,  who  smile 
at  me  whenever  we  meet.  Really,  if  we  did  n't 

C  142  ] 


LETTERS 

have  such  laws  I  'd  adopt  one,  and  bring  him 
home  when  I  come.  They  have  the  same  ex- 
pressive eyes  that  Hermann  K.  has — do  you 
wonder  they  get  all  my  pennies?  Their  pa- 
rents live  in  constant  dread  of  the  devil  run- 
ning off  with  their  sons  ( daughters  don't  seem 
to  count),  so  to  fool  him  they  put  earrings  on 
their  children  when  they  are  very  young,  and 
the  foolish  Old  Nick  thinks  they  are  all  girls. 
Really  that  seems  the  only  fear  they  have, 
and  they  even  put  little  porcelain  dogs  on 
their  roofs  to  scare  him  away.  The  only  pur- 
chase I  shall  make  for  some  time  is  one  of 
these  dogs,  for  I  find  I  can  get  one  oft' one  of 
the  tombs  which  they  are  repairing.  It  is  n't 
stealing,  for  if  I  didn't  get  it,  it  would  be 
broken  up  and  thrown  away. 

Mukden  is  the  most  charming  city  I  have 
ever  seen.  Great  gray  walls  and  houses  with 
their  gold  and  gayly  coloured  signs  outside. 
At  twilight  especially  I  love  it,  when  from  the 
wall  you  see  a  sea  of  tiled  roofs  with  the  little 
white  smoke  coming  up  against  the  most  glo- 
rious sunset  sky  you  can  imagine.  Somehow 
at  such  a  time  you  forget  every  sordid  thing, 
and  feel  as  you  do  in  a  cloister.  I  never  have 
wished  that  I  could  paint  till  now,  but  if  I  could 
get  the  eftefts  and  colours  down  I  should  be 
perfeftly  satisfied. 

There  is  absolutely  no  society  here,  beyond 
C    143   ] 


LETTERS 

three  missionary  wives  and  half  a  dozen  of 
the  consular  men.  Our  evenings  are  usually 
spent  at  w^ork  till  about  10.30,  then  reading 
or  wanting  till  vs^e  go  to  bed.  To-day  I  de- 
clared a  holiday,  and  just  enjoyed  living  in  the 
open  air.  It  v^as  a  glorious  Indian  summer 
day,  with  home  mail  in  the  morning,  and  just 
eleven  weeks  since  I  left,  and  six  since  I  ar- 
rived. My  Chinese  teacher  went  about  with  a 
very  puzzled  expression  when  I  only  read 
three  pages  with  him.  I  fancy  he  has  quite 
given  up  trying  to  understand  me.  Love  to 
J —  and  the  children,  and  your  father  and 
mother. 

Affly, 

Neil 


[  TO  HIS  MOTHER  ] 

Mukden,  Nov.  i8 

Dearest  M--: 

Viceroys — pish!  Carts — pooh!  To-day  we 
went  in  chairs  (carried  by  four  men,  with  a 
sort  of  outrider  along  also)  and  called  on 
H.R.H.  Prince  Ssai  Chien,  cousin  of  the  Em- 
peror, who  is  up  here  on  some  investigating 
junket  (China  is  fully  awake,  you  see),  and 
found  an  aftive  young  man,  rather  bored  with 
the  continual  hand-shaking.  Just  the  three  of 
us,  his  interpreter  and  councillor,  Mr.  Oliver 

C  144  J 


LETTERS 

and  himself.  It  did  n't  last  long, thank  Heaven, 
else  we  should  have  frozen,  for  it's  already 
well  below  zero,  and  the  Chinese  houses  are 
not  heated.  All  a  Chinaman  has  to  do  is  to  put 
on  another  furred  robe,  and  he  is  all  right.  It 
gives  them  a  very  funny  look,  and  men  who 
looked  quite  thin  when  we  first  knew  them, 
now  look  like  a  Russian  coachman.  Straight 
has  to  go  there  to  dinner — is  gone,  in  fa6t  — 
but  took  precautions  to  put  on  three  suits  of 
underclothes.  I — thank  Heaven  once  more — 
am  sitting  here  in  our  inn,  warm  and  comfy. 
And  that  is  what  we  did  to-day,  when  I  sup- 
pose Harvard  is  playing  Yale — and,  I  hope, 
winning.  One  more  event  marks  the  day ;  I 
have  a  Boy.  We  have  been  deciding  to  change 
ours  for  some  time,  and  yesterday  got  a  wire 
from  Newchwang  that  two  new  ones  were 
on  the  way,  so  we  screwed  up  our  courage, — 
but  decided  to  put  it  off  till  to-day.  All  night 
I  had  nightmares,  not  that  he  would  refuse 
to  go,  but  that  I  should  n't  have  courage  to  do 
it,  and  should  find  myself  with  two.  Luckily 
he  was  rather  worse  than  usual  to-day,  so  I 
exploded, and  said  he  might  go  for  good.  I  told 
him  he  was  lazy,  dirty,  went  out  too  much 
without  leave,  stole  too  much,  and  was  in  short 
a  bad  one.  All  this  was  done  in  fear  and  trem- 
bling, and  then,  when  I  was  quite  through, 
he  eagerly  asked  if  he  could  go  at  once, 
i   145   ] 


LETTERS 

grabbed  his  wages  (full  for  this  month,  and 
cheap  at  that),  and  fled,  without  either  wash- 
ing dishes  or  making  my  bed.  My  new  Boy 
is  quite  the  reverse  of  the  other,  being  aftive, 
small  and  thin,  and  I  am  glad  to  say  he  does  not 
smoke  opium,  as  my  other  did.  But  one  thing 
I  know ;  this  is  the  last  change  I  shall  make, 
no  matter  what  this  one  turns  out  to  be! 
Straight  did  the  same,  so  except  for  our  faith- 
ful old  coolie  we  have  an  entirely  new  outfit. 
Our  coolie  looks  like  the  pifture  of  the  Sim- 
pleton in  Howard  Pyle's  "Simpleton  and  his 
Little  Black  Hen.'' 

Our  house  situation  is  the  same,  so  I  rather 
guess  we  are  here  for  the  winter.  It 's  not  bad 
now  that  our  supplies  have  come  and  there  are 
thick  clothes  and  blankets,  not  to  speak  of 
books.  The  latter  we  don't  have  time  for,  be- 
cause there  is  so  much  back  work  to  catch  up. 
Of  course  all  our  official  stufFhas  been  knock- 
ing around  for  three  years  out  here,  and  as 
the  Government  must  have  a  complete  invoice 
I  have  been  busy  counting  the  forms  and  en- 
velopes and  generally  checking  up.  What  we 
are  to  do  with  a  Census  of  Cuba  for  1899,  I 
cannot  guess,  but  it's  here.  But  then  we  get 
lots  of  stuffl  Only  yesterday  we  had  an  inquiry 
from  a  manufafturer  asking  about  the  sales  of 
diving-suits !  I  answered  that  the  wells  were 
small,  that  one  could  wade  the  only  river  near, 

C  146  ] 


LETTERS 

and  that  a  glance  at  the  map  would  show 
where  Mukden  was  if  they  turned  to  the 
northeast  part  of  China. 

Next  week  I  am  ordered  off  to  shoot  wild 
turkey  for  Thanksgiving.  I  may  get  a  deer  or 
two  as  well,  and  perhaps  a  Hung-Hutze!  for 
I  shall  have  to  go  to  Khaiyiian,  a  town  north 
of  Tieling.  It  will  be  fun,  but  rather  cold,  I 
fancy.  Did  I  tell  you  how  I  bought  my  gun.?* 
The  owner  ( I  did  not  know )  was  in  Peking, 
the  gun  in  Shanghai  ( I  only  knew  its  size )  ,and 
I  in  Tientsin,  and  I  bought  it  over  the  telephone. 
Rather  like  buying  a  pig  in  a  poke,  is  n't  \t? 

There  were  eight  foreigners  at  this  inn  one 
day  last  week,  not  counting  us. 

Love, 

Neil 


[FROM  A  LETTER  TO  J.  G.  F.] 

Mukden,  Nov.  i8 

. . .  Now  that  supplies  have  come,  we  are  fairly 
comfortable,  but  cramped.  The  good  Lord 
watched  out  and  kept  fairly  moderate  weather 
until  our  thick  clothes  and  blankets  arrived, 
but  now  it  is  around  the  zero  mark  with  an 
alarming  persistency.  Also  one  drawback  to 
playing  pioneer  is  that  it  is  too  cold  to  get  any 
bottled  goods  here,  or  have  them  sent  up.  We 
C   147  J 


LETTERS 

are  forced  to  drink  boiled  water  only  now,  for 
the  six  dozen  claret  and  one  whiskey  we  have 
won't  go  very  far  in  four  months. 

.  .  .  My  Boy  I  have  changed,  and  got  a  nice 
small  one  who  seems  good.  To-day,  I  asked 
him  about  Christianity,  and  he  said  he  knew 
all  about  it.  "  One  piece  man  named  Jesus,  his 
Father  belong  God,  and  they  kill  him,  and  he 
belong  topside."  Nice  simple  history!  The 
other  rascal  I  had  got  the  go-by  as  soon  as  I 
found  this  one,  and  for  a  while  we  had  no- 
thing but  a  faithful  old  coolie  left.  He  is  a 
wonder  and  keeps  me  laughing  all  day.  Every 
once  in  a  while  he  stops  and  stares  at  the  clock 
for  five  minutes  in  pure  wonder,  and  when  we 
typewrite  he  can  hardly  go  out  of  the  room. 
One  day  when  we  had  no  mail  to  go  he  was 
frightfully  disappointed,  and  kept  giving  me  his 
official  card-case  ( an  enormous  red-and-gold 
oiled  paper  affair)  and  staring.  Our  two  old- 
Boys  worked  him  to  death,  but  now  he  is  quite 
chipper,  for  we  raised  his  wages  a  whole  dol- 
lar ( Mex. )  a  month ;  he  gets  |io  next  month. 

To-day,  while  all  of  you  were  at  the  Yale 
game  ( at  least  I  have  figured  that  it  came  to- 
day ) ,  we  were  in  our  very  gladdest  rags,  very 
cold,  riding  to  meet  a  Prince.  No  carts  for  us 
to-day, . . .  and  we  suffered  for  it  with  the  cold, 
our  toppers  gleaming  and  our  white  waistcoats 
shining.  The  Prince  is  up  here  investigating 
C   148   ] 


LETTERS 

something,  and  everyone  is  trembling  for  his 
head.  He  was  most  genial,  sent  for  us  and  re- 
ceived us  before  the  others. . . ,  Really  I  cannot 
catch  on  to  the  idea  that  I  am  an  important 
person  here,  yet  I  am,  and  never  a  Prince  can 
come  to  Mukden  but  he  must  shake  my  hand. 
Think  of  that! 

We  have  been  rather  gay  of  late,  eight  for- 
eigners here  at  one  time.  That  is  one  of  the 
funny  things  about  China;  w^hen  we  first  came 
here  no  one  ever  came  to  this  inn,  but  now  it 
is  the  popular  one.  .  .  .  How  news  travels  so 
fast  I  don't  know,  but  everyone  knows  of  it 
now,  and  the  landlord  thinks  we  are  corkers. 
In  facS,  he  thinks  we  are  so  nice  he  won't  help 
us  to  find  a  house ! 


[FROM  A  LETTER  TO  MISS  J.  M.] 

November  zmd 

This  morning  we  had  a  frightful  shock  when 
the  innkeeper  announced  that  he  was  going 
to  close  up  because  some  one  had  waltzed  into 
his  office  and  eloped  with  J200.  We  invited 
him  in,  poured  gallons  of  tea  down  his  throat, 
gave  him  a  million  or  more  cigarettes,  and  fi- 
nally persuaded  him  he  was  foolish  to  close 
just  when  he  was  getting  the  foreign  trade. 
That  trying  affair  was  no  sooner  ended  than 

C  149  J 


LETTERS 

the  barber  came  to  chop  off  some  of  our  long 
Bill  Cody-like  curls,  and  Straight  being  No.  i 
took  the  chair  first — one  of  our  dining  and 
reception  room  best.  Right  in  the  middle  of  the 
operation,  who  should  walk  in  but  the  Tao- 
Tai — in  case  I  never  told  you, he  is  the  Mayor 
— to  make  a  very  formal  call.  With  my  usual 
presence  of  mind  I  jumped  up  and  played  the 
"  Wair'  in  imitation  of  "  Midsummer  Night's 
Dream,'' — while  Arnell  carried  on  a  polite 
conversation  in  Japanese  somewhat  like  this: 

Arnell:  Mr.  Straight  wishes  [snip-clip] 
me  to  say  [clip-snip]  that  he  will  [snip-clip] 
be  in  in  a  [clip-snip]  minute. 

Tao:  Mr.  Straight  [snip-clip]  speaks  Chi- 
nese like  [clip-snip]  a  true  Pekinese. 

Straight:  Arnell — help!  tell  this  Jap  bar- 
ber not  to  cut  my  hair  all  off. 

Me  ( through  Arnell) :  Won't  Mr.  Tao  have 
[snip-clip]  another  cigarette.^ 

Straight  [emerging):  How  do  you  do.^  I 
am  sorry  I  was  out  when  you  came. 

Whereupon  the  conversation  is  carried  on  in 
Chinese.  Arnell  and  I  retreat  and  get  pretty 
well  clipped,  so  our  hair  ( what  is  left )  is  pom- 
padour. And  in  the  middle  of  that  who  should 
come  in  but  our  one  subje6l  wanting  a  pass- 
port. Really,  life  in  a  few  rooms  in  a  Chinese 
inn  has  drawbacks — and  our  house  is  a  very 
fancy  article  in  Spain  as  yet. 

C  150  ] 


LETTERS 

However,  to  change  the  subjeft  before  I 
get  too  excited,  1 11  babble  on  once  more  about 
the  North  Tomb.  I  went  there  a  few  days 
ago  and  by  great  luck  got  into  the  very  tomb 
itself.  Before,  I  felt  the  peace  and  quiet  of  the 
place,  but  this  time  I  really  felt  the  san6lity. 
The  inner  tomb  is  surrounded  by  a  wall  about 
20  feet  high  enclosing  a  space  of  two  or  three 
acres.  Not  a  sound  is  heard  in  here,  and  the 
little  temple  building  had  a  feeling  of  abso- 
lute peace  and  quiet.  Overhead  was  a  cloud- 
less blue  sky  with  an  occasional  pheasant 
whirring  across.  Napoleon's  tomb  in  Paris 
gives  one  more  or  less  the  same  feeling,  but 
there  you  do  not  have  the  joy  of  the  open  air. 
It  is  like  the  Altar  to  Heaven  at  Peking  inas- 
much as  you  feel  so  very  close  to  the  Power. 
Walking  away  ( I  was  entirely  alone )  again 
I  felt  the  wonderment  that  anyone  should 
ever  do  wrong.  Yet  they  call  this  a  heathen 
country !  Why,  the  Parthenon  is  nothing  to  it, 
and  we  call  that  the  greatest  piece  of  archi- 
tefture  there  is.  Nothing  that  I  have  yet  seen 
would  suit  me  better  as  a  haven  to  end  my 
days  in.  It  seems  almost  profane,  yet  the  next 
time  I  go  there  I  am  going  to  take  piftures  of 
it,  and  then  you  will  have  some  idea — except 
of  the  colours.  .  .  . 


c  151  :i 


LETTERS 

[FROM  A  LETTER  TO  MISS  A.  L.  P.] 

Mukden, 
November  iind^  1906 

Dear  A — : 

Your  letter  came  like  a  pleasant  thunderbolt, 
if  there  be  such  a  thing. . . .  Do  you  want  to 
know  what  Mukden  is  like?  We  are  eight, 
but  the  Chinese  are  as  numberless  as  the  tears 
that  were  shed  at  Southampton  on  hearing  of 
my  departure — and  even  then  some  more. 

If  you  could  see  the  two  old  beggars  we 
have  for  coolies,  and  our  two  spick-and-span 
little  "•  Boys,''  who  aft  like  useful  shadows  all 
the  time !  We  don't  even  have  time  to  light  a 
match  before  they  do  it  for  us.  It  is  like  being 
a  king  without  its  worry.  Why,  at  last  I  have 
found  the —  There  I  go.  I  almost  forgot  I  was 
broken-hearted  and  mournful — but  don't  tell. 

I  am  now  going  to  pick  up  a  gun  and  take 
a  fall  out  of  a  few  turkeys  and  hares. 

Thanks  for  writing;  keep  it  up. 

Be  p^ood.  . 

^  As  ever,        ^.^ 

Neil 


[FROM  A  letter  TO  H.  N.] 

Mukden,  November  23 

And  the  cold  crept  on  like  a  flow  of  ice  till 
everything  was  frozen  hard,  and  the  unfortu- 

1: 152  3 


LETTERS 

nate  Bottled  Goods  who  were  taking  a  jun- 
ket from  Newchwang  to  Mukden,  in  order 
that  they  might  make  a  short  stay  at  the  Ame- 
rican Consulate-General,  froze  up  in  the  train, 
and  burst  with  a  loud  noise. 

Meanwhile,  having  been  notified  of  their 
expe6led  arrival,  all  was  bustle  at  the  Con- 
sulate-General. The  table  groaned  under  an 
array  of  expeftant  glasses,  while  the  sand- 
wich lay  in  glorious  isolation  on  an  erstwhile 
snow-white  napkin.  All  at  once  the  deadly 
stillness  was  broken  and  carts  were  heard, 
creaking  as  if  under  a  heavy  load,  to  approach 
the  courtyard,  and  the  kind  Consul-General 
with  true  hospitality  went  to  the  door  in  order 
that  he  might  give  the  travel-worn  party  a 
hearty  welcome.  The  Deputy  walked  quickly 
around  the  room,  giving  the  fire  a  poke  and 
straightening  the  glasses.  At  the  sound  of 
voices  in  the  hallway,  he  hurried  to  the  door, 
which  was  hastily  dashed  open,  and  the  Con- 
sul-General burst  in,  white  and  gasping,  mur- 
muring: "All,  all  is  lost!" 

(Curtain,  hastily,  while  the  audience  sob.) 

Thus  began  the  long  dry  winter  of  1906-7. 
For  there  ain't  a  drop  in  Mukden. 

Written  while  sitting  on  a  stove  and  watch- 
ing the  mercury  drop  down  the  thermometer 
till  nothing  is  left  but  a  small  globule  rolling 
round  in  agony  in  the  very  bottom. 

C  153  3 


LETTERS 

Thus  do  the  pioneers  of  Mukden  lead  the 
Simple  Life! 


W    ^ 


[FROM  A  LETTER  TO  H.  M.] 

Mukden,  Nov.  24 

.  .  .  The  most  wonderful  place  and  climate 
that  it  has  been  my  luck  to  see.  It  is  rather  cold, 
.  .  .  but  with  the  dry  climate  lo  or  12  below 
zero  doesn't  count  much.  China,  and  more 
particularly  Manchuria,  for  me  forever !  The 
Chinese  too  are  fine,  just  as  genial  as  the 
best.  They  do  have  some  rather  nasty  habits, 
though, — for  instance,  we  ran  across  a  couple 
to-day,  who  were  selling  their  children  in  the 
street,  because  they  were  out  of  work  and 
cold.  It  gave  me  a  rather  funny  feeling  to  see 
the  poor  little  beggars  snivelling  off  in  the 
corner,  but  as  there  was  n't  anything  to  do, 
I  gave  them  a  few  dollars  to  get  food  with. 

C  154  ] 


LETTERS 

Then  they  have  another  nasty  trick  of  throw- 
ing their  dead  children  into  the  ditch  outside 
the  outer  wall,  wrapped  in  straw  matting.  It 
is  nasty  to  see  the  stray  dogs  fighting  over 
such  things.  I  always  shoot  when  I  do. 

Never  before  have  I  known  what  it  meant 
to  live  like  a  king.  Here  we  are  still  in  a  Chi- 
nese hotel  and  likely  to  be  all  winter,  but  what 
with  two  Boys  and  two  coolies  who  do  every- 
thing short  of  eating  for  us,  I  begin  to  see 
what  is  meant.  ... 


[TO  HIS  MOTHER] 

Mukden,  Nov.  25 

Dearest  M — : 

The  Empress  Dowager's  birthday,  and  half 
frozen.  It  is  now  10.4^5  p.m.  and  we  are  just 
back  from  a  dinner  that  started  at  5, — in  a 
barn-like  spot,  with  a  million  doors  and  no 
heat.  Of  course  we  knew  it  would  be  cold,  and 
wore  as  much  as  we  could  get  on  under  our 
outer  clothes,  but  nevertheless  we  were  fro- 
zen quite  stiff  when  we  got  back. 

Forty-one  of  us  sat  down  to  the  intermin- 
able feast,  where  their  motto  is:  "When  in 
doubt,  serve  soup,*'  and  ate  for  four  hours  to 
the  accompaniment  of  sele6l  portions  of  the 
Chinese  drama.  Thanks  to  my  humble  posi- 

C  155  ] 


LETTERS 

tdon  I  was  placed  at  the  head  of  the  second 
table,  with  Arnell  on  my  right,  and  the  old  Fu 
Tou  Tung  next  me,  so  I  was  able  occasion- 
ally to  talk.  Dish  after  dish  came  on,  and  clash 
after  clash  of  the  brass  instruments  followed, 
till  we  were  nearly  frantic.  Once,  towards 
the  middle,  a  gleam  of  hope  came  when  they 
brought  on  English  plum  pudding,  but  it 
turned  out  to  be  merely  an  eccentricity,  and 
meat  followed.  Next  but  one  on  my  right  was 
a  splendid  old  Manchu  who  had  never  been 
to  a  foreign  dinner  before,  and  really  I  felt 
quite  sorry  for  him  when  I  heard  him  sigh  after 
trying  in  vain  to  use  his  knife  and  fork.  On 
the  other  side  was  a  Japanese  who  went  to  the 
other  extreme  and  ate  his  bread  with  a  knife 
and  fork.  .  .  . 

In  one  large  square  room  the  tables  were 
arranged  three  sides  round  a  court,  with  the 
stage  opposite  the  head  table.  On  all  sides  were 
crowds  of  retainers  and  soldiers,  who,  I  think, 
were  the  only  ones  who  appreciated  the  play. 
Just  behind  me,  on  a  raised  platform  or  k'ang, 
were  the  rows  of  various  high  officials,  all 
young — six  or  seven — and  quite  the  nicest- 
looking  children  I  have  seen  for  years.  They 
didn't  quite  know  which  way  to  look,  foreign- 
ers were  an  awful  rarity  and  the  play  was  ex- 
cellent, so,  poor  chaps,  they  kept  turning  their 
heads  as  we  do  in  a  three-ring  circus.  If  only 

c:  156  -} 


LETTERS 

I  were  rich  enough  I  would  adopt  one  of  them 
and  show  you  all  what  a  true  "heathen"  is 
like.  Dinner  ( I  lost  count  after  the  first  six 
or  seven  dishes )  consisted  of  soup,  fish,  soup, 
meat,  soup,  plum-pudding,  meat,  and  then 
about  ten  more  dishes  in  much  the  same  order. 
I  am  enclosing  the  menu  and  my  name-card. 

When  I  tell  you  that  I  wore  three  sets  of 
Jaeger  underclothes,  the  "  iceman's  jacket," 
a  flannel  shirt,  two  waistcoats  and  my  frock 
coat,  and  was  still  cold,  you  can  fancy  what  it 
was  like.  The  only  comfort  I  got  (outside  of 
the  children)  was  seeing  the  others  shiver. 
But  these  dinners  are  over  till  the  Emperor's 
birthday  in  June. 

I  wish  I  could  write  a  decent  description  of 
it  all,  but  not  only  I  can't,  but  my  ideas  as 
well  as  my  body  are  frozen.  It  has  n't  been 
5°  above  for  a  week  past.  r 

Love, 

Neil 


[FROM  A  LETTER  TO  J.  G.  F.] 

Mukden,  Nov.  28 

Many  happy  returns  of  the  day,  Sir,  only  I 
take  care  not  to  wish  you  any  returns  of  the 
deed.  I  meant  to  telegraph,  but  got  rather 
confused  by  the  Chinese  calendar  till  too  late. 


LETTERS 

so  this  will  follow  you  for  a  month  or  two,  to 
show  you  that  I  was  thinking  of  you.  God 
bless  me — it's  awful  the  way  you  all  go  and 
double  up  to  zero,  leaving  me  more  thor- 
oughly alone  than  miles  only  could  do.  Well, 
it's  all  for  the  best,  and  when  I  get  bored 
doing  this  I  may  try  my  hand  at  it. 

Last  Something  or  other  was  the  Empress 
Dowager's  birthday,  and  with  relu6lance  we 
rode  out  to  a  dinner  at  5  p.  m.  Near  me  was 
a  splendid  old  Manchu  who  had  never  been 
to  a  "foreign"  dinner  before.  I  fancy,  poor 
old  chap,  he  wished  he  had  n't  come  before 
we  were  through.  The  three  soups  were  all 
he  could  eat,  though  he  tried  manfully  each 
time  to  handle  his  knife  and  fork,  only  to  lay 
them  down  on  the  plate  and  utter  heartrend- 
ing sighs.  When  the  fish  came  on  somewhere 
in  the  middle  of  the  dinner,  he  had  a  brief 
hope,  but  unfortunately  saw  me  take  sauce 
from  the  cruet,  and  thinking  that  that  was 
quite  the  thing,  and  that  all  the  bottles  were 
alike,  grabbed  the  mustard  and  helped  him- 
self to  a  mountain.  I  was  laughing  so  I  had 
to  look  down  at  my  lap,  but  one  mouthful 
nearly  caused  a  riot,  however,  he  soon  forgot 
his  woes,  and  even  consented  to  smile  and 
drink  with  me.  On  Arnell's  other  side  was  a 
Japanese  who  could  speak  English.  Suddenly 
I  heard  Arnell  chuckle  violently,  and  he  told 
C   158  ] 


LETTERS 

me  when  we  got  home,  that  the  Jap  had  said: 
"  Excuse  me  for  cockroaching  on  your  time/' 
Arnell  politely  said : "  Oh,  you  mean  encroach- 
ing— but  you  have  n't  been  doing  it."  Where- 
upon the  other  said:  "Oh  yes,  that  must  have 
been  a  mistake.  I  forgot  the  word  was  femi- 
nine." A6lual  fa6l. 

So  you  see  that  except  for  the  intense  cold 
the  dinners  are  rather  amusing — and  the  work 
is  getting  more  and  more  interesting. 


[TO  HIS  BROTHER] 

Mukden,  November  '^ind 

Dear  B— : 

We  are  still  in  our  hotel,  with  no  prospeft  of 
getting  a  house  at  present,  though  we  have 
made  the  Legation  write  to  the  Department 
recommending  the  purchase  of  one  we  found 
in  the  city.  Yet  we  manage  to  be  pretty  com- 
fortable here,  with  a  couple  of  new  rooms 
which  we  have  just  taken,  and  our  two  Boys 
(mine  is  far  better  than  Ali  ever  was)  are 
demons  for  work.  They  are  new,  for  one  day 
we  had  a  revolution  and  chucked  our  other 
rascals. 

The  Chinese  are  getting  mighty  uppish  just 
now,  and  are  trying  to  make  us  think  they 
own  China.  Fortunately  the  only  things  we 
run  against  them  in  are  when  we  have  trea- 

[  ^^9  :\ 


LETTERS 

ties  to  back  us  up,  but  they  are  slower  than 
ever,  and  rather  inclined  not  to  meet  us  at 
any  cost  when  we  try  to  see  them  on  busi- 
ness. When  we  meet  socially  we  are  great 
friends,  though.  Still,  that  is  to  be  expefted, 
and  we  cannot  kick. 

As  to  Mandarin  robes,  so  far  I  have  n't  seen 
them  here,  and  I  believe  there  are  none  to 
be  picked  up.  They  cost,  I  am  told,  in  Peking, 
|6o,  $jo  Mex.  apiece,  but  if  there  are  any 
here  they  will  probably  be  about  lo  per  cent 
more,  as  that  is  the  general  rule,  for  here  the 
Russians  have  been  in  the  habit  of  spending 
freely,  and  everything  has  a  false  value.  How- 
ever, I  am  on  the  lookout,  and  if  I  get  hold 
of  any  I  will  get  them  for  you.  .  .  . 

I  don't  know  what  other  consulates  do,  but 
we  are  busy,  busy  every  minute,  only  time 
enough  for  a  five  or  six  mile  walk  each  day. 
Then  in  odd  minutes  I  plug  away  at  Chinese, 
which,  without  exaggeration,  is  H — 1.  Lately 
I  have  been  looking  for  houses  with  the 
teacher,  and  we  carry  on  an  animated  kinder- 
garten conversation  all  the  while.  He  is  a 
splendid,  dignified  old  cock,  who  is  highly 
amused  by  me  and  my  lessons.  For  the  rest, 
I  am  devoted  to  the  Northern  Chinese,  the 
children  are  wonderful,  and  the  men  and  wo- 
men just  as  genial  and  friendly  as  can  be. 

Will  you  do  me  a  favour,  and  send  out  some 
C   160  ] 


LETTERS 

of  your  English  and  Italian  songs?  Straight 
sings;  besides,  I  like  your  things. . . . 
Love  to  E — . 

Neil 


[TO  HIS  MOTHER] 

Mukden,  Dec.  i 

Dearest  M--: 

I  AM  enclosing  a  map  of  Mukden,  showing  as 
nearly  as  I  can,  where  we  all  live.  The  R.  R. 
is  about  two  miles  off  to  the  west  on  the  same 
road  that  we  are  on,  and  though  the  map 
does  n't  show  it,  the  road  is  for  the  most  part 
lined  with  houses.  The  population  varies  in 
estimate  from  150,000  (the  British- American 
Tobacco  Company's  man)  to  300,000  (the 
missionaries),  so  the  handful  of  whites  is 
thoroughly  lost.  The  place  where  Mr.  Oliver 
lives  is  the  Foreign  Office  Yamen,  where  all 
our  interviews  take  place. 

Houseless  still,  and  desperate;  for  there  has 
been  a  misunderstanding  with  our  innkeeper. 
He  has  found  that  hotel  business  is  unpro- 
fitable in  the  winter,  and  so,  after  an  agree- 
ment by  which  we  pay  |ioo  per  month  for 
our  rooms  and  $65  apiece  for  food, — all  Mex- 
ican dollars, — he  handed  in  a  bill  for  I5  a  day ! 
At  present  we  are  arbitrating  through  Mr. 
Fulton,  and  I  rather  guess  it  will  come  out 

C  161  ;] 


LETTERS 

our  way,  as  Mr.  Fulton  knew  of  our  agree- 
ment; but  it  may  break  our  friendly  relations. 
Added  to  this  we  have  bitten  off  our  noses 
by  asking  Peking  to  recommend  the  purchase 
of  a  place,  which  they  have  done.  Now  we 
shall  not  hear  for  three  or  four  months,  and 
if  the  Department  orders  us  to  buy  they  won't 
allow  rent  for  any  other  place,  and  the  Chi- 
nese never  rent  a  house  for  under  a  year.  We 
are  going  ahead  on  the  hope  they  will  ignore 
our  recommendation  if  we  find  a  house,  and 
hoping  they  will  let  us  know  by  cable  if  we 
don't.  Also,  as  Peking  has  ordered  us  to  live 
in  the  city,  and  the  Viceroy  has  just  said  for- 
eigners can't,  we  expe6l  to  have  much  fuss 
and  trouble.  Our  house  will  be  taken  by  our 
"  writer,"  if  we  find  one,  so  that  the  first  thing 
they  know  is  that  we  are  inside  with  Old 
Glory  above  us.  Meanwhile  I  am  perfe6lly 
comfortable  here — we  have  taken  two  more 
rooms  and  Arnell  has  left  his  Japanese  hotel 
to  live  here  with  us — but  feel  rather  insecure. 
The  worst  of  it  is  we  are  more  or  less  un- 
packed, so  if  we  merely  have  to  move  to  an- 
other hotel  it  will  be  a  bore. 

On  Thanksgiving  we  had  our  subjeft  to 
dinner,  and,  as  I  was  not  able  to  go  to  Khai- 
yiian  and  shoot  wild  turkey,  a  pheasant  in- 
stead. Rather  a  tedious  affair  it  was,  but  it's 

C  1^2  ] 


LETTERS 

over  for  a  while — our  next  celebration  will 
be  Christmas. 

Last  night  Straight  and  I  dined  at  the  Ross's 
— a  dinner  of  9  ! !  !  Dr.  Ross  is  nicer  and  nicer 
every  time  I  see  him,  only  he  does  n't  ever 
know  us  apart.  The  Christies  were  there,  Miss 
Davidson  and  Dr.  ( Miss )  Starmar,  both  from 
the  Woman's  Hospital,  where  there  are  four, 
not  three,  as  I  said  on  the  map  (they  are  back 
of  the  Christies'),  Dr.,  Mrs.  and  Miss  Ross 
and  ourselves.  All  of  them  were  here  during 
Boxer  times,  and  were  quite  thrilling  about  it. 
Dr.  Starmar  took  the  last  train  out!  These 
ladies  travel  all  over  Manchuria  alone,  preach- 
ing and  nursing.  .  .  . 

I  continue  to  suffer  from  eupepsy,  but  Ar- 
nell  now  has  bad  eyes  and  I  spend  the  greater 
part  of  each  day  in  applying  lotions  and  drops 
to  them.  Straight,  under  my  nursing,  has  dis- 
covered that  if  one  goes  to  bed  at  twelve  in- 
stead of  one-thirty,  one  feels  much  better. 
Work  continues  as  he6lic  as  ever,  and  my 
Chinese  suffers  accordingly,  but  I  think  next 
w^eek  I  shall  have  more  time  for  it;  that  is, 
the  teacher  has  been  persuaded  to  give  me 
more  time  in  the  evening. 

Mr.  Mezger  and  Mr.  Fulford  are  both  up 
here  now,  so  we  are  rather  gay.  Next  week 
we  are  going  to  a  tea!  Mrs.  Fulton  has  asked 

[  163 ;] 


LETTERS 

us  to  meet  the  lady  doftors,  and  Mrs.  Huji- 
wara.  In  fa6l,  if  it  were  not  for  our  trouble 
with  Chao,  we  should  be  happy. 

My  books  are  unpacked.  Many  thanks  to 
you  for  "  Captain  Simeon''  and  Emerson — he 
is  better  out  here  than  ever — and  to  S —  for 
the  surprise  of  Bernie.  I  gave  ''Rejefted  of 
Men"  to  Straight  to  read,  with  the  result  of 
throwing  him  into  a  fit  of  hatred  against  the 
slow-witted  public,  and  a  desire  that  everyone 
he  knows  should  read  it  at  once.  There  was 
an  autograph  letter  of  Pyle's  in  front,  which 
he  begged  to  read — of  course  I  told  him  to — 
and  now  he  is  unhappy  because  it  says  no- 
thing about  the  book.  He  wants  to  lend  it  to 
the  missionaries ! 

My  new  boy  is  my  ^' Ali"  and  never  have 
I  been  better  taken  care  of.  The  only  trouble 
is  my  Mongolian  boots,  which  he  thinks  make 
me  lose  "face''  to  wear,  and  as  they  are  very 
comfortable  I  wear  them  always  in  the  house. 
It  does  make  me  feel  rather  like  a  slave- 
driver,  though,  to  have  him  call  me  "master." 
My  room  is  a  work  of  art — on  the  lines 
of  what  a  Chinese  thinks  a  European  room 
should  be,  and  he  is  so  modest  that  he  has 
curtained  off  my  bed,  so  that  it  cannot  be  seen 
during  the  day;  but  as  one  dresses  with  a 
continual  stream  of  coolies  pouring  through, 
washing  the  floors,  etc.,  I  am  not  really  mo- 
t   1^4  3 


LETTERS 

dest.  Beside  that  we  are  on  the  ground  floor, 
in  fa 61,  on  the  ground,  with  a  wood  floor  be- 
tween, and  have  no  curtains — but  one  soon 
gets  used  to  that. 

First  I  must  fix  Arnell,  then  put  Straight 
to  bed  and  then  myself,  so  good-night. 

Best  love, 

Neil 


[FROM  A  LETTER  TO  MISS  J.  M.] 

Dec.  2 

I  KNOW  your  feeling  about  Bernard  Shaw — 
and  share  it  myself  to  a  great  extent,  but  do 
read"  Captain  Brassbound's  Conversion."  The 

lady  in  it  is  so  exa6lly  like it  made  me 

scream  with  laughter  all  the  time.  His  plays, 
when  they  are  "  Pleasant,"  are  extraordinarily 
clever,  at  least  they  seem  so  here,  where 
books  are  scarce.  Emerson  is  all  very  fine  at 
home,  but  to  truly  appreciate  him  one  has  to 
be  thousands  of  miles  away  from  everybody. 
I  revel  in  him  for  hours  after  the  good  little 
Mukdenites  are  all  in  bed  and  asleep.  We 
don't  have  any  too  much  time  to  read,  luckily, 
for  our  books  are  few,  and  I  can  tell  you,  you 
turn  to  serious  things  when  that's  the  case, 
with  only  a  few  things  like  Shaw  in  odd  mi- 
nutes. 


LETTERS 

The  British  and  German  Consuls  are  both 
up  here, and  their  Consulates  open, so  we  have 
a  very  v^elcome  addition  to  our  society.  Last 
week  we  were  very  gay — went  to  a  dinner 
where  there  were  nine  whites!  They  were 
all  missionaries  and  we  could  n't  smoke,  but 
as  they  had  all  been  here  through,  or  rather 
up  to  the  Boxer  times  it  was  very  interesting 
indeed.  There  are  four  missionary-lady-doc- 
tors here,  who  travel  over  Manchuria  alone, 
stopping  in  Chinese  inns  and  travelling  in 
carts.  I  can  understand  how  a  man  could  do  it, 
but  how  women  can  is  more  than  I  can  see. 
Religion  as  they  have  it  is  far  stronger  a  thing 
than  I  ever  conceived  of. 

My  Chinese  has  come  to  a  standstill.  Now 
I  feel  as  one  does  when  one  looks  at  the 
stars.  It  seems  such  a  task  one  cannot  grasp  it. 
Dr.  Ross  the  other  day  asked  me  how  I  was 
getting  on,  and  said  that  it  wouldn't  mean 
anything  for  a  year  at  least !  Unfortunately  I 
have  too  quick  an  ear,  and  can  repeat  sen- 
tences, but  the  chara6lers  mean  nothing  — 
nor  does  the  sentence  have  much  meaning. 

Have  I  written  you  since  we  first  saw  the 
children  being  sold  ?  It  is  quite  common  now 
on  account  of  bad  times,  and  the  early  cold, 
but  I  never  can  see  it  without  a  nasty  feeling 
around  my  waistcoat.  They  are  well  treated, 

[  166  ;] 


LETTERS 


I  believe,  but  the  family  relation  is  so  strong 
among  the  Chinese  that  it  must  be  an  awful 
thing  for  both.  Poor  China! 


[FROM  A  LETTER  TO  LIEUTENANT  F.M.,U.S.  N.] 

Mukden,  December  \th 

Dear  Mr.  M.: 

It  suddenly  seemed  to  me  that  we  were  quite 
near  neighbours  now,  so  I  thought  I  would 
say  howdy.  It's  true  that  when  I  was  in  Pe- 
king I  learned  you  were  in  Tokio,  but  things 
have  been  moving  pretty  quickly,  and  what 
time  I  have  had  for  letters  I  have  written 
home  in. 

By  the  way,  they  were  quite  sore  at  Peking 
that  you  had  never  visited  them,  though  why 
a  Naval  Attache  should  wander  as  far  from 
the  sea  as  that  I  do  not  know !  However,  if 
you  do  you  had  better  brave  the  perils  of  the 
railway,  and  come  by  way  of  Mukden.  .  .  . 

I  am  out  here  in  the  Consulate,  and  have 
found  just  the  life  I  want  to  lead.  There  is 
always  plenty  to  do,  in  fa6t,  we  could  work 
night  as  well  as  day  and  still  have  work  left. 
But  the  climate!  It  is  perfe6l;  a  trifle  cold, 
but  clear  and  invigorating.  After  a  five  or  six 
mile  hard  walk  one  feels  in  splendid  fighting 
trim.  We  are  living  in  a  Chinese  inn — with 

C   167  3 


LETTERS 

no  very  bright  outlook  for  a  house ;  still  if  you 
come  you  will  find  a  bed  and  a  welcome. 

I  left  home  at  the  end  of  August,  straight 
from  Newport,  which  is  just  as  nice  as  ever. 
I  had  been  laid  up  for  some  weeks  before  I 
started,  so  I  had  the  full  benefit  of  the  boats. 
The  family,  I  believe,  are  going  to  winter  in 
San  Francisco  this  year,  but  it  was  n't  defi- 
nitely settled  when  I  left,  nor  have  I  heard  yet. 
Sincerely, 

Nelson  Fairchild 


[FROM  A  LETTER  TO  HIS  BROTHER] 

Consular  Service,  U.  S.  A. 
Mukden,  December  5,  1906 

Dear  J — : 

We  are  still  houseless  and  at  the  same  hotel 
living  in  filth,  but  as  happy  as  can  be,  with 
only  a  spare  minute  once  in  a  while.  The  num- 
ber of  reports  that  we  are  sending  off  will 
keep  the  State  Department  busy,  that  is,  if  they 
ever  read  them,  and  keeps  us  working  pretty 
much  of  the  time  all  day.  My  Chinese  lessons 
have  suffered  in  consequence,  but  I  hope  to 
pick  up  a  fair  amount  in  the  course  of  the  win- 
ter, though  the  charafters  are  the  devil.  Our 
home  mail  is  about  as  erratic  as  it  well  could 
be,  we  have  n't  had  letters  for  two  weeks. .  .  . 
Mr.  Fulford,  the  British  Consul-General, 
C   168  ] 


LETTERS 

and  Mr.  Mezger,  the  German,  have  arrived, 
so  we  are  nearly  complete  here  now,  yet  the 
total  number  of  Europeans  here  is  only  33, 
most  of  them  missionaries.  These,  however, 
are  a  mighty  nice  lot,  and  work  like  the  Devil 
for  the  Chinese — with  no  very  great  results; 
a  possible  2,000  out  of  300,000  inhabitants 
are  Christian,  though  the  missionaries  have 
all  been  here  since  before  the  Boxer  days.  It 
is  awfully  queer  to  see  how  everyone  dates 
events  from  the  Boxers,  though  several  have 
been  here  for  twenty  odd  years.  Outside  of 
the  consular  and  missionary  bodies  there  are 
three  merchants, an  American,  an  English  and 
a  German,  which  after  all  is  a  perfectly  fair 
division.  The  American  gives  us  a  fair  amount 
of  trouble  owing  to  his  imperfe6l  knowledge 
of  Chinese,  which  lets  him  in  to  all  sorts  of 
crooked  deals  with  the  Chinese  merchants 
who  want  a  foreigner  in  the  firm  in  order  to 
escape  taxes.  I  don't  think  he  has  sense 
enough  to  go  wrong  by  himself,  and  he  so 
far  has  saved  himself  every  time  by  trying  to 
get  the  Viceroy's  consent  through  us  each 
time  his  allies  try  a  new  game.  He  is  perfectly 
honest,  but  certainly  is  n't  making  money,  yet 
his  is  the  best  chance  in  the  world, — the  first 
American  trader  in  Manchuria.  If  only  some 
one  would  form  a  company  on  the  lines  of 
the  British- American  Tobacco  Co.  they  would 
1:   169  3 


LETTERS 

pull  in  money  faster  than  they  could  count  it. 
That  Company's  sales  jumped  from  loo  cases 
of  50,000  cigarettes  each,  last  September,  to 
somewhere  nearly  35,000,000  cigarettes  for 
one  of  the  past  months.  Naturally  I  see  a  good 
deal  of  the  agent  here,  the  English  merchant, 
and  though  I  know  the  last  month's  sales  I 
told  him  that  I  would  not  send  them  home,  as 
he  ought  not  have  told  me.  This  was  done, 
too,  when  the  country  was  still  under  Japa- 
nese military  control,  and  when  their  own  mo- 
nopoly was  given  transportation  by  rail — the 
B.-A.  T.  Co.  did  a  great  deal  by  cart — and 
when  the  other  merchants  were  not  allowed 
to  have  a  look  in  at  any  of  the  best  locations, 
all  of  which  had  been  grabbed  for  "  Military 
necessity."  .  .  . 

After  that  tirade  I  '11  stop.  Do  sometimes 
when  you  have  time  write  and  tell  me  how 
things  are  going  both  in  Boston  and  New 
York.  M-  -  wrote  that  Mrs.  H.  was  ill.  I  hope 
she  is  better.  Love  to  everyone,  especially  any 
member  of  the  family  and  C —  and  the  three 
children,  though  I  don't  suppose  the  baby  ever 
heard  of  me  nor  could  understand  if  he  had. 

As  ever, 

Neil 


C  170 ;] 


LETTERS 

[TO  HIS  SISTER-IN-LAW] 

Mukden,  December  8 

Dear  C— : 

A  DAY  or  two  ago  I  got  a  letter  from  M — 
telling  me  of  your  mother's  sad  death.  Though 
I  knew  that  she  had  been  unwell  it  never 
occurred  to  me  how  serious  it  was,  and  when 
her  news  came  it  was  a  terrible  shock. 

Those  early  winters,  when  you  and  Jack 
were  just  married  and  made  such  a  pleasant 
home  for  G —  and  me — I  grew  to  know  Mrs. 
H.  quite  well  and,  like  anyone  who  came  in 
contaft  with  her,  at  once  fell  under  her  great 
charm.  What  your  loss  is,  I  can  understand 
more  readily  for  this.  Her  wonderful  courage 
and  calm  have  made  me  think  a  great  deal, 
and  were  a  constant  source  of  happiness  to 
me  when  I  suffered  any  petty  disgruntlement. 
There  never  was  a  more  delightful  compan- 
ion either  for  work  or  play,  and  I  look  back 
on  those  days  when  we  tried,  or  rather  she 
succeeded  and  I  followed  way  behind,  to  make 
flower-pots.  The  way  she  could  turn  her  hand 
to  everything  was  marvellous;  the  more  so 
when  one  knew  how  many  worries  there 
must  have  been. 

Dear  C — ,  I  wish  I  were  n't  so  far  away  and 
that  there  was  some  little  thing  I  could  do  to 
help  you.  My  heart  is  at  home  a  great  deal 


LETTERS 

these  short  days  and  long  evenings,  and  some- 
times at  night  I  can  almost  hear  you  playing 
— then  I  suddenly  wake  up  and  reahze  how 
far  away  and  helpless  I  am.  Nevertheless  my 
heart  has  been  with  you  a  great  deal  of  late. 

Love, 

Neil 


[  TO  HIS  MOTHER  ] 

Mukden,  December  9 

Dearest  M — : 

Your  letter  of  the  ist  November  telling  of 
Mrs.  H.'s  death,  one  of  a  day  or  two  earlier, 
and  one  from  Gam  came  this  week,  the  first 
mail  for  two  weeks.  Mrs.  H.'s  death  was  a 
shock,  for  somehow  I  didn't  realize  how  ill 
she  was.  Poor  C — !  I  wrote  her  after  one  of 
your  letters  in  which  you  told  me  that  her 
mother  was  ill,  trying  to  be  cheerful,  and  I  am 
quite  sure  it  was  posted  after  her  death.  That's 
the  trouble  of  being  so  far  away. 

No  house  yet,  though  we  are  trying  to  put 
through  a  deal  for  one  now,  which  may  give 
us  a  palace  in  ten  days  or  so.  The  row  with 
Chao  (our  landlord)  ended  in  a  compromise, 
but  there  is  considerable  hard  feeling,  espe- 
cially since  we  have  discovered  that  he  raised 
the  price  of  one  house  we  looked  at  4000  taels ! 
That  we  rub  into  the  missionaries,  for  he  is 


LETTERS 

(or  was,  till  he  took  a  second  wife)  a  pillar 
of  the  church.  .  .  . 

Two  more  families  of  missionaries  we  have 
called  on  this  past  week :  the  Gillespies  and 
Robertsons,  and  they  are  delightful.  The  Rob- 
ertsons' is  the  smallest  place  yet;  a  three- 
*'chien'*  house — that  is,  three  rooms  about 
12x16,  but  so  nicely  fixed  up  and  "  lived  in." 
Dr.  Ross  and  Dr.  Christie  built  large  Euro- 
pean houses  after  the  Boxer  times — while 
Mr.  Fulton,  Mr.  Turley,  the  Robertsons  and 
Gillespies  all  fixed  over  Chinese  houses. 

Dr.  Ross  is  a  splendid  old  patriarchal  sort 
of  man  with  a  long  white  beard.  Mr.  Turley 
belongs  to  the  Bible  Society  and  is  rarely  at 
home,  so  we  never  see  him.  Mr.  Fulton  is  a 
truly  deeply  thinking  man  and  very  religious. 
The  fa6l  is,  they  are  all  nice. 

Lately  we  have  been  seeing  a  good  deal  of 
the  various  merchants,  who  now  flock  to  us 
every  day  and  look  at  catalogues  or  ask  ad- 
vice. We  know  so  many  that  every  time  I 
walk  along  the  Ssu  Ping  Gai  I  meet  a  lot! 
The  fa6l  is,  we  are  marvelled  at,  for  we  work 
all  day;  Mr.  MuUin,  the  Postmaster,  keeps 
asking  me  what  we  find  to  do  when  we  send 
off  ^2  or  $3  worth  of  mail  every  day.  The 
poor  State  Department  will  be  flooded  by  us ! 

It's  settled  into  cold  weather  now,  at  least 
the  others  find  it  so,  but  it  is  not  very  differ- 

C  173  3 


LETTERS 

ent  from  Boston,  and  when  there  isn't  too 
much  wind  it's  delightful  for  walking.  If  this 
press  of  work  ever  lets  up,  I  shall  take  a  trip 
north  for  shooting,  and  get  a  little  material 
for  more  reports. 

These  are  my  newest  piftures.  I  don't  keep 
any,  but  have  all  the  films  in  case  you  want 

any  more.  j 

-^  Love,         T^-r 

'         Neil 


Our  quarters  at  the  Mao-lin  Kwan 


rang 

iCang 

Room  for 

two  boys  and 

one  coolie 

ICang 

K'ang 

Straight's 

room  and 

general 

wash-place 

1 1 

Reception- 
room,  office 
and  dining- 
room 

1 1 

Office 
typewriter, 
presses,  etc. 

1 1— 

My  bedroom 
and  Chinese 
writer's  office 

1 1 

Hall 

window 


window 


The  rooms  are  1 2  x  1 2,not  counting  the  raised 
K'ang,  on  which  we  have  beds  in  our  two 
rooms,  a  bookcase  (with  our  stores  behind  it) 
on  the  reception-room  one,  and  official  sup- 
plies on  the  other.  We  face  south,  so  we  get 
the  afternoon  sun.  The  *  shows  the  window 
to  be  seen  in  the  photograph.  In  the  reception 
and  sitting  room  we  have  a  large  roll-top  desk, 
four  chairs,  a  table,  two  easy-chairs,  two  book- 
cases, two  Korean  chests ! !  Puzzle,  find  the 
C   174  ] 


LETTERS 

floor.  These  additions  came  after  I  drew  the 
chart,  which  was  meant  to  go  earlier,  but  for- 
gotten. 


[FROM  A  LETTER  TO  J.G.F.] 

Mukden,  December  9,  1906 

...  I  AM  laid  up  with  as  cunning  a  little  cold 
in  the  head  as  anyone  ever  had  the  luck  to 
get,  all  because,  to  swell  the  dignity  of  our 
country,!  appeared  at  some  funftion.  It  simply 
doesn't  matter  how  much  you  put  on,  you 
get  back  home  shivering,  call  for  hot  drinks 
(and  get  tea)  and  bundle  into  bed.  .  .  . 

We  manage  to  keep  ourselves  pretty  busy 
every  day,  and  rarely  get  out  of  the  house  be- 
fore 3.30,  and  as  it  gets  dark  about  4.30  there 
is  very  little  time  to  do  anything.  Then  also 
there  is  a  good  deal  to  do  in  the  evening, 
Chinese,  clipping  the  papers,  reading  law, — 
a  thing  I  have  begun  to  do, — so  that  we  don't 
seem  to  have  any  time  for  ordinary  reading 
or  letters,  though  Straight  has  solved  that  by 
sitting  up  till  1 2  or  so ;  but  that  is  altogether 
too  strenuous  for  me. 

Ideas  have  ceased,  dinner  is  ready  ( we  dress 
every  night)  and  I  feel  too  stuffed  up  to  think. 
So,  so  long. 

Deild  Fairjild 

c  175  3 


LETTERS 

[  TO  HIS  BROTHER  ] 

Mukden,  December  12 

Dear  B— : 

Your  letter  of  06lober  28  got  here  to-day, 
and  welcome  it  was.  I  don't  know  what  came 
over  me  to  write  to  Paris  from  the  train,  but 
I  rather  guess  my  wheel  was  running  round 
too  hard.  However,  you  will  probably  find  it, 
unless  the  Russky  postmaster  found  the  stamp 
alluring,  or  the  contents  questionable — but, 
as  Grant  wrote,  I  need  n't  be  pitied  for  study- 
ing Chinese,  for  they  would  find  my  writing 
harder  than  ever  I  could  find  theirs,  so  the 
Russian  censor  would  have  had  a  hard  time. 

To  first  answer  your  various  questions:  the 
best  way  to  send  books,  letters,  thimbles  or 
any  other  articles  of  furniture  is  by  Marseilles 
and  Shanghai,  for  the  Chinese  port  is  safe, 
and  the  Russian  too.  .  .  .  Out  of  two  months' 
"Lifes"  which  ought  to  be  here  I  have  two 
copies,  and  not  one  of  Straight's  *' Collier's" 
has  yet  turned  up.  However,  it  is  just  as  well, 
for  we  have  no  time  for  them — not  that  we 
shan't  have  plenty  for  any  books  that  might 
find  their  way,  especially  Monsignor  Vay's. 

The  domestic  situation  is  unchanged.  We 
are  looking  at  two  houses,  but  expeft  them 
to  vanish  into  thin  air,  which  is  a  most  re- 

C   176  3 


LETTERS 

markable  custom  of  the  Mukden  houses,  and 
we  continue  to  live  in  the  luxury  of  the  Mao- 
lin  Kwan.  In  spite  of  the  luxury  it  is  rather 
inconvenient;  for  example,  last  night  I  was 
peacefully  dreaming  about  shooting  and  was 
very  annoyed  to  be  continually  pursued  by  a 
Japanese  voice.  Finally  it  got  too  persistent 
and  I  waked,  only  to  find  a  little  man  with  a 
dark-lantern  bending  over  me  and  shouting 
the  Japanese  equivalent  of"  wake  up/'  When 
I  was  thoroughly  awake  I  asked  him  in  my 
most  exquisite  Billingsgate  what  he  was  do- 
ing, upon  which  he  handed  me  a  telegram, 
all  this  at  2  a.m.  in  my  own  room!  I  was  so 
mad  that  I  nearly  shot  him,  but  finally  got 
Arnell  ( he  has  come  to  live  with  us )  and  sent 
the  brute  away,  I  saying  what  I  thought,  Ar- 
nell putting  it  into  polite,  flowery  Japanese. 
By  that  time  we  were  both  awake,  and  the 
messenger  having  gone  ( he  was  n't  satisfied 
with  my  signature  and  wanted  me  to  put  the 
impression  of  my  thumb  on  the  receipt)  we 
decided  to  wake  Straight,  and  ask  him  to  read 
the  important  thing,  which  was  in  code.  Ac- 
cordingly we  did  it,and  poor  Straight  unlocked 
the  code  and  found  that  it  was  written  in  the 
Blue  one  instead  of  the  Red  one  which  we 
have,  so  we  don't  know  yet  what  it  means. 
Arnell  and  Straight  both  thought  it  was  bad 

[  177  :\ 


LETTERS 

news,  whereas  I  was  too  angry  to,  and  merely 
wanted  to  kill  the  messenger. 

We  are  having  a  fine  time  politically  here, 
for  the  Chinese  are  trying  all  sorts  of  games 
(it  being  a  brand-new  field,  with  no  prece- 
dents ) ,  each  of  which  we  politely  but  firmly 
throw  down.  It  seems  too  bad,  for  Chao  (the 
Viceroy's  name  is  the  same  as  our  old  rascal 
landlord's ) ,  I  think,  means  well,  and  wants  to 
reform  China,  but  he  has  no  conception  of 
what  a  treaty  means,  and  runs  against  them 
all,  every  time.  Then  besides  that,  it  is  a  per- 
fe6lly  new  country,  and  we  are  busy  as  the 
devil,  getting  off  reports,  etc. 

To-morrow  we  are  going  to  give  a  swell 
dinner  for  Mr.  Fulford,  Mr.  Mezger  and  Mr. 
Oliver.  Our  Boys  are  frightfully  excited  ( it  is 
the  whole  Consular  body,  except  the  Japa- 
nese ) ,  especially  because  we  have  given  them 
uniforms,  all  silk,  for  ^30  ( Mex. )  for  the  two. 
It  is  funny  to  think  of  Straight  being  senior  to 
all  the  others,  when  you  realize  that  he  is  at 
least  ten  years  younger  than  Mr.  Mezger  and 
twenty  or  twenty-five  younger  than  Mr.  Ful- 
ford. 

What  do  you  think  of  my  letter-head  and 
bookplate  ?  It  is  my  discarded  name ;  discard- 
ed, because  the  Legation  gave  me  a  three- 
chara6ler  one,  not  half  as  swell,  for  two  mean 
Manchus.  Personally,  I  think  it  is  rather  fancy. 

c  178  3 


LETTERS 

Now  to  bed — but  first  lock  my  door,  with 
a  chain,  and  woe  to  any  telegram  that  comes ! 

Love  to  E — . 

Neil 


[TO  HIS  MOTHER] 

Mukden,  December  15 

Dearest  M--: 

Just  a  few  minutes  ago  we  had  the  mail,  and 
in  it  a  letter  from  S —  from  the  Southern  Pa- 
cific, dated  November  18, — and  I  still  have  to 
send  things  to  Newport,  having  no  other  ad- 
dress !  I  am  awfully  glad  that  you  are  really 
there  now,  it  ought  to  be  delightful,  and  we 
are  nearer  each  other. 

This  has  been  a  heftic,  broken-up  week, 
the  Royal  Commissioners  are  back,  and  every- 
thing on  end ;  just  now  we  are  waiting  for 
a  call  from  them  by  proxy,  after  which  we 
have  to  represent  our  nation  at  the  opening 
of  a  petty  Japanese  Bazaar  Exhibition,  which 
means  hours,  and  poor  food.  In  the  first  place, 
Arnell  went  to  Dalny  on  Tuesday;  next, — 
Wednesday, — the  Royal  Commission  arrived, 
and  we  had  to  go  down  and  meet  them. 
That  night  we  gave  a  dinner  to  Mr.  Mezger 
and  Mr.  Fulford,  an  historic  event;  the  first 
meeting  of  the  Consular  body,  which  was  a 
great  success,  and  didn't  break  up  till  near 

C  179  ] 


LETTERS 

midnight,  which  considering  our  youth  and 
their  age  was  a  great  compliment.  Next  day 
we  had  to  call  on  the  Princeling  and  talk  a  min- 
ute about  his  trip,  then  off  to  look  at  a  house 
which  the  Japanese  had  given  up. . . .  Then  a 
long  walk  with  Mr.  Oliver  down  to  the  river 
Hun,  tea  with  him,  home  to  work  and  now 
here  we  are  again,  waiting,  and  rowing  with 
the  landlord  about  glasses  for  the  Proxy  to 
drink  out  of.  Chao  gets  more  insufferable 
every  day,  and  no  house  in  sight,  though  we 
are  playing  our  last  card  for  one. 

Apart  from  all  this,  life  flows  on  the  same 
as  ever,  regular  work,  lots  of  interest,  two 
hours*  walk  every  day  and  sleep.  Our  domes- 
tic staff  is  excellent,  but  we  nearly  had  a  row 
because  of  the  Christian  washerman  whom 
one  of  the  missionaries  gave  us.  According 
to  custom  he  has  either  to  pay  a  "squeeze'' 
to  the  Boys  or  wash  their  clothes  free.  My 
old  rascal  tried  to  squeeze,  and  I  ordered  him 
to  stop,  or  pack  up  and  go.  That  unfortu- 
nately made  the  washerman  think  he  could 
do  as  he  liked,  and  now  my  new  treasure  is 
kicking  because  his  things  are  not  washed.  I 
fancy  I  shall  have  to  go  without  any  clean 
things,  for  I  simply  won't  part  with  my  Boy, 
he  is  too  good.  Straight  is  awfully  jealous! 

It  is  awfully  funny  to  watch  my  Boy  pro- 
teft  me  in  the  morning,  for,  as  I  have  said, 
C  i8o  ] 


LETTERS 

we  have  no  privacy.  The  coolies  w^ant  to  w^ash 
up  my  room  w^hen  I  get  up,  and  Clarence 
comes  in  and  looks  round  at  the  ceiling ;  then 
as  soon  as  my  Boy's  back  is  turned  he  starts 
work.  My  Boy  gets  very  angry  and  shoos 
him  out,  till  I  go  out  for  my  bath.  It  happens 
every  morning,  —  part  of  a  game,  I  think. 

Have  I  ever  described  a  Japanese  bath.^  It 
is  a  wooden  box,  about  four  feet  each  way, 
filled  with  water  which  is  heated  to  about 
110°  by  a  fire  underneath  it.  In  you  go  ( very 
slowly)  and  soak  for  about  two  minutes,  then 
hop  out  and  sponge  off  with  icy  (literally, 
nowadays )  water.  There  is  nothing  like  it  to 
make  one  feel  splendidly.  The  only  trouble  is 
they  only  change  the  water  once  a  day,  but 
no  one  is  allowed  to  use  it  before  we  do,  so 
that  objeftion  is  more  or  less  overcome.  .  .  . 

I  had  a  letter  from  B —  last  week,  written 
on  the  steamer,  but  outside  of  that  and  S — 's, 
I  haven't  heard  since  your  letter  of  the  1st 
November.  He  told  me  to  tell  you  to  send 
over  the  Vay  book  after  you  had  all  finished 
it — I  mean,  out  here.  They  tell  me  it  ought 
to  be  good,  especially  as  he  really  knows 
what  he  was  writing  about.  I  haven't  been 
reading  anything  lately,  that  is,  new  things, 
there  is  no  time;  but  I  have  just  discovered 
the  "No6les."  Really  they  are  perfe6lly  de- 
lightful— everyone  ought  to  read  them. 
1:   181   J 


LETTERS 

Since  the  above,  hours  and  hours  have 
elapsed.  The  Proxy  came,  one  Chu,  a  Yale 
graduate,  who  stayed  half  an  hour  or  so, 
talked  nicely  in  excellent  English,  refused 
champagne  and  asked  for  a  cocktail  ( ! )  which 
we  managed  to  conco6l  out  of  all  sorts  of  in- 
gredients that  don't  belong  in  'em.  Then  we 
bolted  our  lunch  to  rush  off  to  the  Exposition, 
but  just  before  we  started,  a  merchant,  Tien 
Ho  Tung,  came  in  to  ask  advice  about  paying 
taxes.  Half  an  hour  later  we  got  off,  it  then 
being  2.15,  and  the  invitation  reading  for  1. 
However,  the  East  is  slow,  and  it  hadn't 
begun,  though  everyone  (Fulford,  Mezger, 
Siebert,  Christie,  Oliver,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Ross, 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Fulton,  that  is)  was  there.  Most 
of  them  had  thought  it  meant  lunch,  but  we  had 
speeches  till  3.15,  then  a  walk  round  the  Ba- 
zaar, and  finally  a  cold  lunch  in  a  colder  tent 
at  about  4.  Then  Mr.  Hujiwara  had  us  all  in 
for  tea,  and  at  last  we  got  back  here,  worn  out. 
These  Japanese  entertainments  are  not  as 
good  as  the  Chinese — both  are  awful — for 
they  are  semi-European  and  dreadfully  arti- 
ficial. . .  .  However,  they  are  fairly  interesting 
once — and  thank  Heaven,  there  won't  be 
another  for  some  months. 

Love, 

Neil 

I  182  ;] 


LETTERS 

[FROM  A  LETTER  TO  H.  G.  M.  ] 

Mukden,  December  i6,  1906 

.  .  .  Another  little  errand  you  might  do,  if 
your  kindness  remains  as  it  used  to  be,  go  to 
1 8  Waverley  Place  and  get  me  a  couple  ( half 
a  dozen  would  not  be  amiss )  of  those  Fibrin- 
loid  collars,  i5>^,  provided  they  look  at  all 
possible.  This  nation  of  washermen  is  certainly 
h — 1  on  linen  of  all  kinds.  .  .  . 

The  Japanese  opened  a  Bazaar  yesterday. . . . 
We  were  asked  for  i  p.  m.,  but  Straight  and 
I  had  some  one  with  us,  and  lunched,  and  ar- 
rived at  2.30. . . .  Two  hours  of  speeches  fol- 
lowed. Then  we  looked  at  the  show.  Then 
went  into  another  tent  for  a  cold  lunch.  .  .  . 
The  last  affair  I  '11  go  to  for  a  long  time,  for 
I  waked  up  last  night  with  neuralgia  in  my 
teeth  and  head. . . . 

Whoop  up  the  market,  marry  lots  of  money , 
and  come  out  here  on  your  wedding-trip. 
Meantime  write  me  some  gossip. 


C   183  3 


l^tfij'j'^'^'  ■:;..  U 


'When  we  are  dead^  seek  for  our  resting-place 
Not  in  the  earth,  but  in  the  hearts  of  men.'' 

(JALALU'D-dIn  RUMf) 


■hi 


NELSON  FAIRCHILD 


[FROM  W.  PHILLIPS 
SECRETARY  OF  LEGATION  AT  PEKING] 

American  Legation,  Peking 

December  27,  '06 

.  .  .  Mr.  Straight  telegraphed  to  me  to  come 
at  once  to  Mukden,  and  I  started  at  once,  but 
as  it  is  a  three-days  journey,  I  could  not  ar- 
rive until  the  fourth  day  after  the  accident. 
On  the  day  after  my  arrival  the  funeral  ser- 
vices w^ere  held,  condu6led  by  Dr.  Ross,  in 
the  temporary  quarters  of  the  Consulate,  at 
10  a.m.  There  were  only  a  few^  foreigners 
present,  because,  as  you  know,  Mukden  is  a 
deserted  spot,  but  there  were  several  English 
missionaries,  the  British  and  Japanese  Con- 
suls, and  a  few  Chinese  officials.  The  Viceroy 
sent  a  guard  of  honor  of  one  hundred  men, 
and  we  followed  the  coffin  to  the  little  Rus- 
sian cemetery  about  two  miles  distant,  where  a 
temporary  grave  had  been  prepared.  Straight 
and  I  walked  direftly  behind,  the  others 
followed.  Once  we  passed  an  old  temple,  and 
the  sombre  and  discordant  bell  rang  out 
sadly.  Another  prayer  was  said  at  the  grave, 
and  then  the  coffin,  wrapped  in  the  flag  and 
covered  with  Chinese  artificial  flowers,  was 
lowered,  while  the  bugles  were  sounded.  We 
decided  that  Neil  should  be  removed  to  the 

c  185  n 


NELSON  FAIRCHILD 

foreign  graveyard  at  Newchwang,  which  is  a 
much  more  permanent  and  attraftive  place.  I 
could  not  help  feeling  that  the  little  Russian 
compound  would  disappear  within  a  few  years, 
and  I  strongly  recommended  the  plan  of  only 
a  temporary  burial  at  Mukden. 

I  can  assure  you  that  Neil  had  been  happy 
and  absorbed  in  his  work  up  to  the  last.  When 
he  was  in  Peking,  a  short  time  ago,  we  were 
all  very  much  impressed  with  his  earnest- 
ness and  very  real  interest  in  the  life  which 
he  was  to  follow,  and  I  was  especially  struck 
at  the  time  by  what  seemed  to  me  a  new  en- 
thusiasm. 

I  cannot  tell  you  how  deeply  I  grieve  over 
his  death.  . .  . 

William  Phillips 


[FROM  W.  D.  STRAIGHT 
CONSUL-GENERAL  AT  MUKDEN] 

[Not  dated^ 

If  I  might  see  you  I  could  tell  you  what  I 
feel,  how  much  I  feel,  but  it  is  hard  to  write. 
It  all  seems  so  impossible  that  I  cannot  realize 
what  has  been  taken  from  us — what  has  come 
upon  us. 

He  was  the  sunshine  of  the  office  and  in  our 
lives, and  was  always  so  gay  and  cheerful  and 

C   186  3 


NELSON  FAIRCHILD 

unselfish,  so  kind  to  everyone  and  thoughtful 
of  others,  that,  as  I  have  already  written  you, 
he  was  an  example  to  us  and  an  inspiration. 
He  was  so  interested  in  everything,  and  so 
keen  about  his  work — and  so  willing  to  learn 
and  to  do  the  drudgery  that  must  always  be 
done.  Here  everyone  liked  him  very  much, 
and  to-day  nearly  all  of  the  little  community 
have  come  to  offer  their  sympathy  to  you.  The 
Viceroy  has  been  here,  and  will  furnish  a  guard 
of  honor.  He  told  me  that  he  could  hardly 
sleep  last  night  when  he  heard  the  news,  and 
said  that  he  had  liked  Neil  very  much  from  the 
first,  for  his  manner  would  go  straight  to  the 
hearts  of  the  Chinese.  The  flags  have  been  at 
half-mast  to-day,  and  offers  of  help  come  in 
from  all  sides. 

For  me  he  was  everything,  for  we  used  to 
talk  and  talk  about  all  manner  of  matters ; 
and  his  ideals  were  so  high  and  his  thoughts 
so  clean,  that  it  meant  everything  to  me  here, 
where  it  is  so  lonely  and  far  away.  He  could 
see  all  the  bright  spots  and  none  of  the  soni- 
bre  ones,  and  it  all  seemed  fresh  and  wonder- 
ful again  in  seeing  it  with  him  and  through  his 
eyes. 

He  seemed  always  so  happy  that  I  was  sur- 
prised sometimes,  for  I  was  afraid  that  with 
time  it  might  pall,  and  that  he  might  regret 
the  life  he  had  left  behind,  where  he  had  al- 


NELSON  FAIRCHILD 

ways  been  a  centre, living  and  enjoying  things 
with  so  many. 

WiLLARD  Straight 


[Not  dated] 

To-day  came  a  letter  from  Tientsin,  from  a 
man  through  whom  he  had  ordered  a  Christ- 
mas present  for  me  ;  the  rumor  had  only  just 
reached  him,  and  he  was  broken-hearted. 

From  Newchwang  come  the  letters  from 
those  who  had  known  him  and  liked  him  dur- 
ing the  few  hours  that  he  was  there,  and  they 
all  ask  me  to  express  to  you  their  deep  sym- 
pathy. 

Dr.  Christie,  who  came  that  night,  and  Mr. 
Fulton,  who  was  also  here,  and  myself  did 
everything  at  the  last, and  he  wore  a  blue  suit, 
a  color  of  which  he  was  so  fond. 

We  had  services  here,  and  again  at  the 
grave,  and  the  Viceroy  sent  bearers,  twenty- 
four,  and  a  guard  of  honor.  The  officials  have 
all  been  very  kind,  and  they  too  have  asked 
me  to  express  their  sympathy. 

In  a  day  or  two,  when  arrangements  have 
been  made,  I  shall  move  him  to  Newchwang, 
where  there  is  a  pretty  ground,  with  trees  and 
flowers,  and  in  the  shadow  of  an  old  church 
with  a  quaint  English  tower,  that  has  been  a 

1 188  :\ 


NELSON  FAIRCHILD 

landmark  for  years,  since  the  port  was  first 
opened. 

I  held  him  at  the  last,  and  hoped  and  prayed 
that  there  might  be  some  relief,  that  he  might 
be  spared,  but  there  was  no  hope.  Although 
the  do6lors  came  as  soon  as  possible,  there 
was  nothing  to  be  done.  He  suffered  no  pain, 
the  bullet  had  gone  into  the  brain. 

WiLLARD  Straight 


[Not  dated'\ 

You  will  wish  to  know  of  what  we  did  here 
at  the  last.  There  were  many  wreaths  and 
some  beautiful  mistletoe,  and  all  of  these  we 
put  on  the  casket.  The  Boys  were  heart- 
broken, and  the  last  day  brought  chrysanthe- 
mums ;  where  they  found  them  I  don't  know, 
for  flowers  were  terribly  difficult  in  this  cold 
weather.  Then  they  wished  to  walk  with  us 
to  the  cemetery  which  was  two  miles  away, 
and  to  which  we  followed  the  bier  on  foot.  It 
was  very  cold  and  the  ground  was  covered 
with  snow,  but  the  day  was  clear  and  fine 
save  the  biting  wind.  There  was  a  prayer  and 
a  short  service,  and  that  was  all.  It  was  very 
simple. 

He  was  so  kind  to  everyone.  He  looked 
after  the  sick  and  sent  them  books  and  papers ; 


C   189  J 


NELSON  FAIRCHILD 

French  journals  to  the  poor  lonely  priests  and 
the  papers  that  came  in  to  those  who  other- 
wise would  never  have  seen  them.  He  looked 
after  poor  Arnell  whose  eyes  went  wrong. 

WiLLARD  Straight 


Newchwang,  February  i6,  1907 

We  had  only  a  very  simple  service,  and  the 
casket  was  wrapped  in  the  flag.  Newchwang 
is  only  a  little  place,  and  the  foreign  commu- 
nity is  very  small,  but  the  people  are  open- 
hearted  and  very  kindly,  and  had  received 
him  as  one  of  themselves,  even  though  he  had 
been  here  for  such  a  short  time.  Yesterday 
almost  every  man  in  the  community  came  to 
the  cemetery  and  stood  bareheaded.  It  was  a 
beautiful  day,  clear  and  cold  and  bright,  a 
typical  Manchurian  day ;  and  all  will  be  very 
quiet  and  peaceful. 

Near  by  is  the  grave  of  a  brave  missionary 
who  was  killed  by  the  Chinese,  while  in  ser- 
vice too,  and  there  are  many  others  who  have 
all  done  their  best  in  this  far  country.  He  too 
has  done  his  best,  and  made  us  better  able  to 
meet  the  world  with  a  brave  heart. 

WiLLARD  Straight 


C  190  ] 


NELSON  FAIRCHILD 


Massachusetts  is  ever  present  to  those 
whom  she  has  reared.  Her  high  standards 
and  ideals  accompany  them  into  whatsoever 
land  they  go,  and  wherever  they  may  be  they 
are  always  her  sons. 

Some  have  left  names  that  will  endure  in 
history ;  some,  no  less  noble,  that  history  will 
guard  only  in  the  lives  and  deeds  of  other 
men. 

Some  rest  within  our  Commonwealth,  some 
in  distant  lands ,  but  whether  at  home  or  abroad , 
far-famed  or  cherished  in  the  hearts  of  few, 
they  have  lived  and  died  a  tribute  and  an  eter- 
nal legacy  to  the  soil  that  bore  them. 


C  191    1 


"  Tet^  0  stricken  hearty  remember^  0  reinember 
How  of  human  days  he  lived  the  better  fart, 
Afril  came  to  bloom  and  never  dim  December 
Breathed  its  killing  chills  upon  the  head  or  heart. 

'''-'Doomed  to  know  not  Winter^  only  Springs  a  being 
T^rod  the  flowery  April  blithely  for  awhile^ 
^ook  his  fill  of  music y  joy  of  thought  and  seeing^ 
Came  and  stayed  and  went,  nor  ever  ceased  to  smile, 

'•'•Came  and  stayed  and  went,  and  now  when  all  is 
finished, 
Tou  alone  have  crossed  the  melancholy  stream. 
Tours  the  pang,  but  his,  0  his,  the  undiminished 
Undecaying  gladness,  undeparted  dream. 

'•'All  that  life  contains  of  torture,  toil,  and  treason. 
Shame,  dishonour,  death,  to  him  were  but  a  name, 
Here,  a  boy,  he  dwelt  through  all  the  singing  season 
And  ere  the  day  of  sorrow  departed  as  he  came'' 

R.  L.  STEVENSON 


Davos,  1 88 1 


/ms, 


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THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CAUFORNIA  UBRARY 


